"Literary critic and scholar Bloom has a passion for literary assemblages. He is also ardent in his articulation of the psychological, philosophical, and spiritual roles literature, especially poetry, plays in life, and in coping with death. So who better than Bloom to gather poets' last poems? Bloom cites 'three kinds of "last poems".' The first is the obvious, the 'final poems' composed by the 100 poets he holds dear. The second are poems 'intended to mark the end,' even though the poet continued to write, and the third are poems Bloom reads as 'an imaginative conclusion to a poetic career'."—Booklist