Barry Spacks's poetry is clear in thought, ungarbled in structure. He avoids obscurity, the abstract, and radical, innovative styles. Some would label his style conservative, but nonetheless he is a poet who understands the true meaning of poetry.

Spacks was born on 21 February 1931, in Philadelphia, to Charles Spacks, a merchant, and Evelyn Schindler Spacks. The young Spacks was educated in the public schools of Philadelphia and at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned his B.A. in English in 1952. In 1956 he received his M.A. from Indiana University. As a Fulbright Fellow, Spacks did postgraduate work for a short time at Cambridge. From 1957 to 1959 he taught English at the University of Florida. From 1960 to 1981 Spacks served as professor of humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Since 1981 he has been a professor of English at the University of Kentucky, then at the University of California at Berkeley...