Ambitious, eloquent, and erudite, Albert Goldbarth has produced in less than twenty years a body of work that has had an undeniable impact on contemporary American poetry. As much as any other living poet, Goldbarth has tested the limits of what a poem can do and be. As Michael Heffernan noted in the Midwest Quarterly (Winter 1975), "Albert Goldbarth has extended his range perhaps broader than any other poet of the mid-seventies and, in doing so, has taught himself more tricks than most mature poets could use by the end of the century." Incredibly prolific, Goldbarth has been both derided and praised for his copious output. Writing in the same issue of the Midwest Quarterly, Dave Smith said, "It has been suggested that a tourist in, say, Vladivostok, picking up the local literary magazine, would find a story by [Joyce Carol] Oates and a poem by Goldbarth." Perhaps because...