The Collected Poems

For the first time, all of the poems in Koch's ten collections--from Sun Out, poems of the 1950s, to Thank You, published in 1962, to A Possible World, published in 2002, the year of the poet's death--are gathered in one volume. Here is Koch's early work: love poems like "The Circus" and "To Marina" and such well-remembered comic masterpieces as "Fresh Air," "Some General Instructions," and "The Boiling Water" ("A serious moment for the water is when it boils"). And here are the brilliant later poems--"One Train May Hide Another," the deliciously autobiographical address in New Addresses, and the stately elegy "Bel Canto"--Poems that, beneath a surface of lightness and wit, speak with passion, depth, and seriousness to all the most important moments in one's existence. --From publisher description.