Reviews of The Descent

“Sophie Cabot Black, in her second book, The Descent, is absolutely direct and absolutely removed—a strange confluence of tones that is both intellectually provocative and deeply moving….Black’s voice is startling, jagged and implacable, and The Descent is steep, precipitous and dazzling—all the way down from a hard-earned heaven.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Spare to the point of elegance…The work [is] elusive but enchanting.” —American Poet

“Such is the territory of The Descent—outside the known, in an untamed place of grave danger and great beauty.” —Field

“In her own quiet, approaching way, Black dissects love and relationships at length, a sense of longing that’s reiterated over and over and never fulfilled.” —Fairfield Weekly

“Following her first distinguished collection, The Misunderstanding of Nature, award-winning poet Sophie Cabot Black scores again in bringing her considerable talent to The Descent. Written in lyrical passages, it is a book of quiet, almost primordial, intensity in its metaphors and similes.” —The Sanford Herald

“Sophie Cabot Black is an award-winning poet whose lyrical verse and revelatory images evoke and highlight doubt, loss, survival, and spiritual resilience. The Descent is her second published collection and continues to document her unmistakable voice and literary talent.” —Midwest Book Review