Literary critic and scholar Bloom has a passion for literary assemblages. He is also ardent in his articulation of the psychological, philosophical, and spiritual roles literature, especially poetry, plays in life, and in coping with death. So who better than Bloom to gather poets' last poems? Bloom cites "three kinds of ‘last poems.'" The first is the obvious, the "final poems" composed by the 100 poets he holds dear. The second are poems "intended to mark the end," even though the poet continued to write, and the third are poems Bloom reads as "an imaginative conclusion to a poetic career." His great favorites are here: Shakespeare, Milton, Yeats, Hopkins, Emerson, and Stevens, as well as Conrad Aiken, A. R. Ammons, James Merrill, Amy Clampitt, and Agha Shahid Ali. Bloom introduces each poet and poem with his signature blend of knowledge, ardor, and, facing his eightieth year, poignancy. These are poems that embrace change, time, life, the self, and death. Poems that have lasted and that will "reverberate into the coming silence."
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