How to Do Things with Tears

How to Do Things with Tears is a book brought forth by the Sighted Singer, the poet who holds the central position in Allen Grossman's newest work. "This is a HOW-TO book," Grossman explains. "The heroic singer of tradition is blind. A NEW singer in this present must be sighted. In this book the poet intends to say something, insofar as a poet can, about the common sadness of living and dying in the world." Like the blind bard of old, Grossman's Sighted Singer conjures visions both high and low, in mythopoeic resonances that excite the sorrows and the laughter of the gods and men.

How to Do Things with Tears in Allen Grossman's first collection since The Philosopher's Window (1995) and his ninth book of poetry. Among his many honors and awards are the Witter Bynner Prize for Poetry, MacArthur, Guggenheim, and NEA fellowships, the PEN-Sheaffer/New England Award for Literary Distinction, and an Academy Award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is the Andrew Mellon Professor of Humanities at The Johns Hopkins University.