Ranging from the late middle ages to the present, each poem in this anthology of English language poems is an individual poet`s particular, profound encounter with death and mourning, yet each speaks timelessly about collective human grief. Including giants of American poetry Dickinson and Whitman, modernists Stevens and Millay, and more contemporary voices like Merwin, Olds, and Kunitz, this collection seeks to unify the experience of mourning, and offers readers a poignant voice to lean on in the process.