"Willard Spiegelman is considered one of the finest critics of poetry writing today. This volume collects his best work on the subject, offering essays that span his entire career and chart his changing relationship to an elusive form. With his trademark perfect pitch, in engaging and stylish prose, Spiegelman takes readers on a tour of the diverse landscape of British, American, and Latin poetry, as he provides nuanced, insightful readings of works by our greatest poets." "Ultimately, Imaginative Transcripts is less a survey of a field than a reflection of one man's literary interests and tastes. It is also an impassioned argument in favor of keeping the close reading of poetry, both in and out of the classroom, at the heart of a literary education."--Jacket.