In this meditative and incisive collection, Stephen Dunn draws on themes
of morality and mortality to explore the innermost machinations of human
nature. Shifting in tone but never wavering in their essential honesty,
these poems reflect on desire, restraint, and the roles we play in an
ever-evolving society. In Pagan Virtues, Dunn reminds us of his
penetrating eye for the universal and the specific, and his ability to
highlight our contradictions with tenderness and wit.
Two poems dedicated to Dunn's eulogist, in advance, bookend the
collection. The first introduces us to the poet's sardonic candor and
unflinching gaze at his own mortality, while the latter, written
nineteen years later, reflects on what it means to continue to live in
the "despoiled and radiant now." A stunning sequence on the relationship
between the speaker and "Mrs. Cavendish" examines an intimacy sustained
and repelled by politics, philosophy, and attraction. Wry,
observational, and wide-reaching, Pagan Virtues offers indispensable
truths from a master of contemporary poetry.