Since the publication of his first volume of poetry in 1976, Alfred Corn has increasingly distinguished himself as one of the most accomplished, musical, and versatile poets of his generation. He is a master of the lyric form, and several of his books have included long poetic sequences; one, Notes from a Child of Paradise (1984), is a book-length narrative poem structurally modeled on Dante's Divina Commedia (circa 1307-1321). He has also published one novel; a highly praised manual of prosody; a collection of essays; translations of poetry and drama; critical writing on art, music, and the theater; and a collection of essays on the New Testament, which he edited. While he has never been identified, or identified himself, as one of the core group of New Formalist poets, he has served as a faculty member at the West Chester Writer's Conference for three consecutive years and is adept at...