"To the Trespasser"
from David Barber's
Wonder Cabinet

David Barber:

David Barber is the poetry editor of The Atlantic. His first collection of poems, The Spirit Level, received the Terrence Des Pres Prize from TriQuarterly Books.

About Wonder Cabinet:

Taking inspiration from the curiosity cabinets of the late Renaissance, David Barber offers up in his second book an eclectic gallery of natural marvels and historical gleanings. Creation his chief subject, Barber concentrates on humankind’s quest to impose definition and significance on the natural world. These are poems that meditate on all manner of wondrous phenomena: falconry and funiculars; the knotted quipas of the Incan empire and the tulipmania of the Dutch Golden Age; the lore and language of field guides, epitaphs, beekeeping, and seafaring; the ghostly vestiges of library of Alexandria. haiku stanzas, by calling such landmark as Audubon, Houdini, Babe Ruth, and Buster Keaton. Barber delves deeply into the realms of both popular culture and natural history with a formal rife with agile music, avid wordplay, and mordant wit.

"The botanist, the beekeeper, the falconer, the grammarian, the master of the high wire, the student of dew: David Barber's Wonder Cabinet finds room for them all. And finds in them all the common ground of poetry: devout articulation of the given world. Barber's gift for form is most luminous at just that juncture where form becomes meaning. These poems are built on wonder and beautifully produce it."
— Linda Gregerson

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