Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Acknowledgments ix
4. Introduction: Poetry in the Age of Tin 1
5. Prisoner, Fancy-Man, Rowdy, Lawyer, Physician, Priest: Whitman's Brags 17
6. Verse Chronicle: Sins and Sensibility 35
7. Verse Chronicle: Vanity Fair 50
8. "You Must Not Take It So Hard, Madame" 65
9. The Mystery of Marianne Moore 87
10. Verse Chronicle: No Mercy 98
11. Verse Chronicle: The Way of All Flesh 113
12. The Extremity of the Flesh 128
13. Later Auden 137
14. The Triumph of Geoffrey Hill 142
15. Verse Chronicle: Author! Author! 162
16. Verse Chronicle: Folk Tales 176
17. Housman's Ghosts 191
18. Milton in the Modern: The Invention of Personality 202
19. Verse Chronicle: All Over the Map 219
20. Verse Chronicle: Falls the Shadow 234
21. Poetry and the Age: An Introduction 249
22. The World Out-Herods Herod 255
23. Lowell's Bubble: A Postscript 297
24. Verse Chronicle: The Real Language of Men 301
25. Verse Chronicle: Satanic Mills 315
26. Auden's Shakespeare 330
27. Berryman's Shakespeare 335
28. The Sins of the Sonnets 344
29. Permissions 375
30. Books Under Review 377
31. Index of Authors Reviewed 381