In this collection, the author writes some of the most original, compelling, & well reasoned essays & reviews on contemporary poetry. Annotation. Mason writes about poetry in general, 19th-century American poetry, contemporary poetry, the New Formalism, and about poets like W.H. Auden, Tennyson, Robert Frost, Seamus Heaney, Louis Simpson, Anne Sexton, and J.V. Cunningham. Mason's critical position? "Though I have nothing against the personal in art, I do want it transformed, made into something beyond an advertisement for the self." In other words, the author, despite dislike of the term "New Formalism," very much admires craft. Mason has published two books of poetry, is a translator, and teaches English at The Colorado College, Colorado Springs.