Poetry and Music brings together distinguished poet and critic John Hollander's best writings on the distinctive relationship between song and verse. in this volume of original and newly revised essays, Hollander displays the imagination, grace, and mastery of form that reveal him as "one of the major figures of our moment" ( The New Republic ). Poetry and Music is a passionate and intellectually playful conversation across borders that rethreads long-severed bonds between the two art forms. Hollander's authoritative and accessible criticism guides us through the moments when both modes work in tandem-and leads us to ask why they only sometimes do so successfully. His subjects include hack lyrics in popular music, the effect of setting poetry to music, how music works against enjambment in both metrical and free verse, and musical verse in the works of Donne, Shelley, Keats, and Tennyson, among others. Hollander's lyrical and enlivening prose is the work of a master poet, and his Poetry and Music is a joy for any reader.