Breakdown lane

Over the past two decades Robert Phillips has built a reputation as one of the outstanding American poets of his generation. Now, in his fifth full collection of verse, that reputation is both confirmed and consolidated. These are thoughtful, substantive poems that may make the reader smile - and reflect. There are autobiographical poems about the poet's childhood, elegies for the recent dead in American arts, extended metaphors on suburban existence, and a long section of poems in which the poet courts, wins, then loses the Muse. Both in voice and performance, Breakdown Lane is a thoroughly consistent and engaging volume.