Frog Praises Night: Poems with Commentary. Signed

Through a fresh, imaginative format—prefaces and afterwords that sketch the character of the poet, that provide insight into how he writes and what inspires him—Richard Thomas has cap­tured in this book of his own poems the flavor and excitement of a poetry read­ing. The book’s three sections (My Friends; My Loved Ones; My Self) not only showcase the poem but also ac­quaint the reader with the process of writing poetry.

Defining his goal in this book, Thomas says, “I hope untrained readers may better understand the ingredients of poetry—metaphor, ambiguity, mys­tery. As for experienced readers, I hope they will find the comments as interest­ing as those they might hear at a read­ing.” This is a nondidactic book for creative writing classes and a text for both English education courses and lan­guage arts methods courses in educa­tion. And of course a book for those who appreciate poetry.

F. Richard Thomas, widely published poet for more than 20years, is Associ­ate Professor of American Thought and Language at Michigan State University.