The hammered dulcimer

Lisa Williams's award-winning collection of poems is infused with what John Hollander calls "a guarded wonder." A poet of unique vision, she seems always to be "looking at," with special attention to the experience of the senses. In addition, Williams is concerned with epistemology - the how of seeing. And it is perhaps this quality of attention that informs her interest in the formulations of poetry itself, in its constructed dimension.

Her control of the line, of rhythmic possibilities, of structures both formal and free, is evident in every poem. Together, Lisa Williams's original voice and her poetic finesse allow her to create those harmonies of wonder evoked by the very instrument, the hammered dulcimer, that gives her collection its name.