In Sentences, contemporary poet Howard Nemerov adds to his distinguished work a collection of gnomic verses, declarative poems, sonnets after other poets, and sustained lyrics. "In [ Sentences ], not only has Nemerov continued to accommodate himself to the literary tradition without falling back on parody; he has also . . . extended the resources of blank verse beyond what any modern practitioner, himself included, has managed to. This extension comprises more than a mere prosodic advance; it is a rhetorical and imaginative advance. 'By Al Lebowitz's Pool,' 'The Makers,' 'Monet,' and 'A Christmas Storm,' for example, are dazzling in their very naturalness... No one since Frost has done as much to move blank verse from where Wordsworth and Coleridge had left it."—Mary Kinzie, Poetry