In this illuminating critical study, Lesley Wheeler argues for a women's tradition in American poetry lyric poetry characterized by figures of enclosure. She examines how six dissimilar yet interconnected poets employ this idiom: Emily Dickinson, Marianne Moore, H.D., Gwendolyn Brooks, Elizabeth Bishop, and Rita Dove. As Wheeler notes, the terms "closed" and "open" have long posed problems for poets and scholars. Addressing such controversies,...