“Writers had better not be too cocksure that they’ve got inspiration on their side.”

Now is my turn to speak, if I
can claim it, tipping myself forward,
letting my tongue fall with a soft,
an inward, an almost inaudible click.

The haystack’s painting hangs in the Met;
the painting of the haystack, that is,
the one by Monet, not by van Gogh,

Discretion is the very soul of your pants pocket:
first, because your pocket hides whatever you put in it,

Catch! It’s a quarter, right? You got it? Good.

I wake up mornings snug in my bed-puppet.
Not the liveliest in my repertoire,
but wait, it gets better: next is my pants-puppet,

This is a city of bridges,
though the water has mostly fled;
a city of ambitious span

I can hear the prayer echoing inside
my head, but cannot make the chamber speak.

The suspense is exquisite. A twitch at the last step
intimates that year’s particular rapture:

I am singing of something loose in your blood
where it roves without homecoming, never turns back,

Forget the way the flesh beneath the rind
waits with moistened lips for the hovering spoon,
smiling, yielding up each perfect round;

In our eight-part series Life Sentence, the literary critic Jeff Dolven takes apart and puts back together one beloved or bedeviling sentence. The artist Tom Toro illustrates each sentence Dolven chooses.  There are so many ways to pin a sentence …

In our eight-part series Life Sentence, the literary critic Jeff Dolven takes apart and puts back together one beloved or bedeviling sentence. The artist Tom Toro illustrates each sentence Dolven chooses.The question: Are you ill? The answer: Kings …

In our eight-part series Life Sentence, the literary critic Jeff Dolven takes apart and puts back together one beloved or bedeviling sentence. The artist Tom Toro illustrates each sentence Dolven chooses.W. H. Auden was a compulsive aphorist. His poe…

In our eight-part series Life Sentence, the literary critic Jeff Dolven takes apart and puts back together one beloved or bedeviling sentence. The artist Tom Toro illustrates each sentence Dolven chooses.The first thing I want to do is give you the s…

In our eight-part series Life Sentence, the literary critic Jeff Dolven takes apart and puts back together one beloved or bedeviling sentence each week. Artist Tom Toro illustrates each sentence Dolven chooses.Americans are particularly bad at lying,…

In our eight-part series, Life Sentence, the literary critic Jeff Dolven takes apart and puts back together one beloved or bedeviling sentence each week. Artist Tom Toro illustrates each sentence Dolven chooses.   How do you read a sentence by Ger…

In our new eight-part series, Life Sentence, the literary critic Jeff Dolven will take apart and put back together one beloved or bedeviling sentence every week. Tom Toro will illustrate each sentence Dolven chooses. Read earlier installments of…

In our new eight-part series, Life Sentence, the literary critic Jeff Dolven will take apart and put back together one beloved or bedeviling sentence every week. Tom Toro will illustrate each sentence Dolven chooses.   What is a sentence? But that…