School of the Arts - by Mark Doty (Paperback)

From the Back Cover

With School of the Arts, Mark Doty's darkly graceful seventh collection, the poet reinvents his own voice at midlife, finding his way through a troubled passage. At once witty and disconsolate -- formally inventive, acutely attentive, insistently alive -- this is a book of fierce vulnerability that explores the ways in which we are educated by the implacable powers of time and desire in a world that constantly renews itself.

Review Quotes

"Moving, splendidly observant, and unflinching, Mark Doty's poems extend the range of the American lyric poem." - American Academy of Arts and Letters
"Achieve[s] a quiet grandeur with a voice marked by the clarity and thoughtful lyricism that distinguished his earlier collections." - Ilya Kaminsky, Library Journal, starred review
"Memorable, essential, big hearted, joyous in music ... this is the finest book of poems by one of our finest poets." - Alan Shapiro
"Vivid, inviting, descriptive verse." - Publishers Weekly
"Memorable, essential, big hearted, joyous in music and somber in theme, this is the finest book of poems by one of our finest poets." - Alan Shapiro on School of the Arts
"Doty is honest and stringent. . . . Wonderful . . . a book to be read slowly and closely." - Daily Telegraph (London)