Robert Pinsky is the U.S. For example, you have been called a "modernist." Read "Shirt" and see if you don't agree. And this project, I say some of my friends say it?s a joke they?re tired of, but really I?m a metrical engineer. Robert: Yeah, I?m very interested in a subject that I don?t know the name for, civilization or culture or history ... all have some kind of drawback to them. I?m very interested in memorization which is the process of incorporating a poem, so, I would say the kind of poetry I write is the kind that emphasizes the physical qualities of the words.

There was a bunch of Jewish storekeepers in downtown Long Branch on Broadway and I think the grocery store was the Grocel's, and they had a son who grew up to be Jeff Chandler and I think it was the hardware store where the son became Myer Abrahams, M. H. Abrams, the literary critic and it was another store where the pianist Julian Katchin was the son, and the dress shop was call Estelle?s and that was Norman Mailer?s aunt.

I said well you know if you?ve lost a beloved spouse, then read a poem in which there are the words "really dead" and they?re a laugh line -- I said it gave me some trepidation and Peter who had written a book about, a great book about, elegy said a wonderful thing. At that time, responding to a question about that book, Pinsky said: “I would like to write a poetry which could contain every kind of thing, while keeping all the excitement of poetry.”. Grace: That particular piece, about Elliot Gilbert -what was the title again.

Where? It would be nice to tell you I had a profound attachment to The Inferno and I did have a great teacher, one of the great critics of the 20th Century when I was in college, Francis Ferguson, author of Idea of the Theatre.

Sometimes Bob would quote them and beam and grin with pleasure and I would feel like I had to be polite and didn?t quite understand why it was so wonderful. Pinsky is the author of nineteen books, most of which are collections of his own poetry. Grace: And that was Sadness and Happiness. Grace: I want to stay with your Dante for a moment because it is an occasion in literature. I think that?s clear, but I think you?re a little too modest about that and we know it?s a little bit more than cogs in wheels.

He introduced me to Dante but it was what about 20 or 25 years later that my then publisher put together a book with 20 different poets, each doing a canto or two and I fell in love with the technical challenge, the technical problem of doing an English Terza Rima which was supposed to be impossible, and there is something attractive about it so I did Canto 28 for that assignment, and somebody couldn?t do Canto 20 and I did Canto 20 -- and sort of secretly to amuse myself the way people play computer games or do crossword puzzles -- I started to do Canto 1 because it was hard to stop and when I finished Canto 1, I realized I was starting something.

You know my lips and my tongue and my teeth and my breath are performing that work of art. And the first thing I want to know is: how did you get the idea that you wanted to do this. "Modernist" for me first of all just means a bunch of people.

What do you think a modernist poet is, and would you just name a few of them who are your favorites. Grace: They thought that it was all just a marble column. Robert Pinsky is the U.S. Robert: No because I didn?t know Italian. To add insult to injury, it's one of the worst book covers I've ever seen.

Grace: A wonderful thing.