Vertebrae Rosaries: Fifty Sonnets by Philip Dacey

“I remember, thirtysome years ago, when Dacey first published a couple of poems in traditional forms, thinking, Phil, Phil, what are you doing? That’s how out of fashion the old forms had fallen. Before long, he had co-edited with David Jauss, Strong Measures: Contemporary American Poetry in Traditional Forms, which has proven one of the most popular and influential anthologies of the past three decades. And I can think of no living American poet who has mastered more forms from free verse to blank verse, from couplets to sonnets and beyond than Philip Dacey.”