The Humility of the Brutes: Poems - Paperback

by Ron Smith (Author)

The title of Ron Smith's new collection comes from Yeats's observation that creators "must go from desire to weariness and so to desire again, and live but for the moment when vision comes to our weariness like terrible lightning, in the humility of the brutes." The poems in The Humility of the Brutes move beyond Yeats's journey, using precise language and memorable phrasing to push through skepticism and guide us toward the mystical as we struggle to understand our past and our present.

Author Biography

Ron Smith was Poet Laureate of Virginia from 2014 to 2016. He holds the George Squires Chair of Distinguished Teaching and serves as Writer-in-Residence at St. Christopher's School in Richmond, Virginia, where he has also been an adjunct associate professor at the University of Richmond. Smith is the author of these poetry collections: Running Again in Hollywood Cemetery (1988, second edition 2020), Moon Road (2007), Its Ghostly Workshop (2013), and The Humility of the Brutes (2017).