The lyric poems of In Beauty Bright, although marked by the same passion and swiftness as Gerald Stern’s previous work, move into an area of knowledge—even wisdom—that reflects a long life of writing, teaching, and activism. They are poems of grief and anger, but the music is delicate and moving.from "In Beauty Bright":In beauty-bright and such it was like Blake’slily and though an angel he looked absurddragging a lily out of a beauty-bright storewrapped in tissue with a petal drooping,nor was it useless—you who know it knowhow useful it is—and how he would be deadin a minute if he were to lose it thoughhow do you lose a lily?
