"These essays by poet Ellen Bryant Voigt celebrate the art and craft of lyric poetry. Voigt teaches us to read as a writer reads - with equal parts passion and analysis. Her memorable discussions of tone, image, form, and structure make brilliant insight tangible as she revisits Shakespeare, Sidney, Dickinson, Stevens, Bogan, Roethke, Plath, Larkin, Levertov, Berryman, Bishop, and others. Both instructive and inspiring. The Flexible Lyric exemplifies, with fierceness, dedication, and precision, how the making of poems is not just a trade but a calling."--BOOK JACKET.