Music of the Wide Lane

A translated volume containing masterworks by an award-winning poet.

Sharron Hass’s award-winning poetry is distinctive for its ability to capture ephemeral moments in time, and Music of the Wide Lane evokes epic figures from Greek philosophy, the Hebrew Bible, and poetry. Her inspirations include Sophocles, Aristotle, the medieval Iberian Hebrew poet Yehuda Halevi, Emily Dickinson, and Wallace Stevens. Hass masterfully alters time and expression, lending an impression of perpetual change, as the past, present, and future intermingle.

Music of the Wide Lane explores homoerotic relationships, tense mother–daughter bonds, and the concept of light as a metaphor for truth and goodness. This remarkable fifth collection of Hass’s work includes an extended elegy for a dying father, two major poems from her previous work, and invites readers to expand their understanding of and appreciation for Hebrew-language poetry.