Author Description

In the countdown to the Third Millennium, time and events tend to be scrutinized apprehensively. Ordinary human fear of portents and oracles becomes intensified. Peter Porter's new collection acknowledges this pressure, and protests against it. More than ever, his poems address contemporary life in its present flux, while forecasting a turbulent future. The second part of the book, entitled "Homage to Robert Browning," is a series of monologues and character pieces in which individual voices speak to us from a wide range of occasions and places. An imaginary notebook kept by Bach's first wife Maria, Barbara, and poems called "Aesop's Dressing Gown," and "Berenson Spots a Lotto," all give an idea of Porter's wide-ranging curiosity and knowledge, which he displays wit great generosity and humor.