As up-to-date as the current cosmography, as steeped in tradition as ancient agriculture, George Bradley's The Fire Fetched Down overflows with energy, humor, and intellectual curiosity. Readers will find the aesthetic detachment and technical proficiency they have come to expect of Bradley's work, but they will discover other, more immediate attractions as well.

The poet sounds new notes in his new book, among them the bemused intimacy of "Ode to Absent-Mindedness" and the uneasy excursion of "Frug Macabre." From lyric outburst to contemplative essay, from myths of origin to postmodern manifestos, the work assembled here is of a heady variety in subject and style. Bradley does not lose his balance, though, and he manages to effect an equilibrium between inspection and introspection. By turns exuberant and wistful, informative and sly, The Fire Fetched Down is also serious fun. Bradley offers those most human of pleasures, the cultivation of language and the exercise of second thought.

This is poetry intended to entertain in the largest sense of the word.