Louise Glück, The Wild Iris (1992)

There are a few living poets whose new poems one always feels eager to read. Louise Glück ranks at the top of the list. Her writing's emotional and rhetorical intensity are beyond dispute. Not once in six books has she wavered from a formal seriousness, an unhurried sense of control and a starkness of expression that, like a scalpel, slices the mist dwelling between hope and pain.