Work Life

“Always an elegist, in the Vergilian mode, Kane touches greatness here in the beautiful poignance of 'Third Parent,' a farewell to his late mother-in-law. Only a handful of American poems in the last few decades perform the work of mourning so eloquently. Kane is a meditative poet resigned to a kind of faithless faith that longs for a transcendence not available to it.”—Harold Bloom

Paul Kane writes poems of heartbreaking beauty. Cerebral and emotional in equal measure, Work Life contains his most personal lyrics.

A recipient of Fulbright, Guggenheim, and National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships, Paul Kane teaches at Vassar College.

Paul Kane is the author of two previous poetry collections, The Farther Shore and Drowned Lands. He has written a critical study of Australian poetry and edited an edition of Ralph Waldo Emerson's poems. He has won fellowships from the NEH and the Guggenheim Foundation. He has been awarded Fulbright and Mellon Grants. He teaches at Vassar College.