Passing Through: The Later Poems

Stanley Kunitz, one of the masters of contemporary poetry, presents his ninth collection, gathering a rich selection of his work, including new poems that remind us of his prefatory statement: “Art is the chalice into which we pour the wine of transcendence.” Nearly all the poems of Kunitz’s later years, beginning with The Testing-Tree (1971), are included, and most of the poems in Passing Through are unavailable in any other edition.

In “Touch Me,” the last poem in the collection, Kunitz propounds a question, “What makes the engine go?” and gives us his answer: “Desire, desire, desire.” These poems fairly hum with the energy, the excitement, the ardor, that make Kunitz one of our most enduring and highly honored poets. In the words of Carolyn Forché, “he is a living treasure.”