Including poems, sequences, and a prose memoir, this collection looks at the 20th century and its aftermath through the shattered lens of John Ruskin's famous book and the work of certain modern painters. With steady, truth-telling poems, this compilation is not only inspired by the poet's collaborations with artists, but also charts his remarkable journey from the backstreets of Philadelphia to Cambridge and Yale. Lyrical, philosophical, elegiac, and satirical as appropriate, these traditional verse forms draw on the landscapes of memory.