With intelligence and precision, Ellen Bryant Voigt parses out the deft and alluring shape of poetic language in The Art of Syntax. Through brilliant readings of poems by Bishop, Frost, Kunitz, Lawrence, and others, Voigt examines the signature musical scoring writers deploy to orchestrate meaning. "This structure-this architecture-is the essential drama of the poem's composition," she argues. The Art of Syntax is an indispensable book on the writer's craft by one of America's best and most influential poets and teachers.

Ellen Bryant Voigt is the author of seven collections of poetry, including Messenger: New and Selected Poems 1976-2006, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. She lives in Vermont.