The Complete Poems

From the Introduction: Just words of course, all just so many words. But words strung slyly, judiciously, and always lovingly one after the other in due order and in such a way as to entertain, sometimes astonish, and, the poet hopes, occasionally enlighten the literate, or even otherwise, reader; all cast in diverse poetical schemes ranging from the formal classical pentameter of Milton or Tennyson to unformed lines to satisfy even the postiest of moderns; but in fact most of the lines herein actually - can it be? - scan, and many - oh no! - even rhyme, sometimes obviously, sometimes merely hinted at in surprising ways, recalling Wallace Stevens’s remark that ＂one writes poetry out of a delight in the harmonious and orderly＂; one will find here blank verse, heroic couplets, a touch of ottava rima, numerous sonnets of various styles, even, just for fun, a limerick and a finicky double dactyl; also some rowdy cowboy poetry and other diverse schemes nearly as numerous as the pages herein.