Best words, best order : essays on poetry / Stephen Dobyns.

First edition published by St. Martin's Press, 1996.

Includes bibliographical references (p.[369]-386) and index.

Deceptions -- Metaphor and the authenticating act of memory -- Writing the reader's life -- Notes on free verse -- Pacing : the ways a poem moves -- Function of tone -- Voices one listens to -- Traffic between two worlds -- Rilke's growth as a poet -- Mandelstam : the poem as event -- Chekhov's sense of writing as seen through his letters -- Ritsos and the metaphysical moment -- Cemetery nights -- Maker's manipulation of time -- Passerby in the birdless street -- Problem of beauty and the requirements of art.