Now and Then: The Poet's Choice Columns, 1997-2000 - Tapa dura

"A deeply pleasurable anthology of outstanding poems . . . Hass reminds us of the importance of reading and literature, recounting the truly heroic achievement of nearly universal literacy during the nineteenth century and the hallowed place that literature then had in the pages of daily newspapers, a focus that helped make this nation strong, but which we now seem to be devaluing to an alarming degree. Hass is certainly doing his part to keep literature vital, and even the most poetry-phobic of readers will feel welcome here."

A former poet laureate profiles poets and poetry inspired by a pre-September 11 world, in a volume that shares his observations as written between early 1997 and the start of the millennium and includes evaluations of the work of such figures as William Butler Yeats, Margaret Atwood, and Robert Frost.