Boring, tedious, and burdened with excessive detail. Parini creates a portrayal of a poet who is privileged and coddled. The excerpts he selects as examples are unclear and frequently have absurd and far-fetched interpretations. Reading this book from beginning to end was a laborious and painstaking task. It fails to inspire the reader to have a desire to revisit the book. Instead, it implants a longing for the book to reach a swift and sudden conclusion, which, unfortunately, takes an inordinately long time to occur.