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Fear Less: Poetry in Perilous Times
The Pulitzer Prize–winning poet reveals how poetry is a powerful tool of connection and understanding in a fractured world.
Drawing on deep passion and personal experience, former US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith demystifies the art form that has too often been mischaracterized as “inaccessible,” “irrelevant,” or “intimidating.” She argues that poetry is rooted in fundamentally human qualities innate to our capacities to love, dream, question, and engage across diverse cultures and backgrounds.
Lifting the veil on her own creative process, Smith shows us how reading and writing poetry allows us to confront life’s many uncertainties and losses, to build camaraderie with strangers, and to understand ourselves. She grounds readers in the technical elements of the craft and provides close readings of the works of contemporary poets such as Joy Harjo, Danez Smith, and Francisco Márquez, alongside classic poems by Dickinson, Keats, Millay, and others. By reimaging and reexamining the age-old art form, Fear Less is a warm invitation to find meaning, consolation, and hope through poetry.
Drawing on deep passion and personal experience, former US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith demystifies the art form that has too often been mischaracterized as “inaccessible,” “irrelevant,” or “intimidating.” She argues that poetry is rooted in fundamentally human qualities innate to our capacities to love, dream, question, and engage across diverse cultures and backgrounds.
Lifting the veil on her own creative process, Smith shows us how reading and writing poetry allows us to confront life’s many uncertainties and losses, to build camaraderie with strangers, and to understand ourselves. She grounds readers in the technical elements of the craft and provides close readings of the works of contemporary poets such as Joy Harjo, Danez Smith, and Francisco Márquez, alongside classic poems by Dickinson, Keats, Millay, and others. By reimaging and reexamining the age-old art form, Fear Less is a warm invitation to find meaning, consolation, and hope through poetry.
192 pages, Hardcover
Published November 18, 2025
71 people are currently reading
3969 people want to read
About the author
Tracy K. Smith
42 books843 followersTracy K. Smith is the author of Wade in the Water; Life on Mars, winner of the Pulitzer Prize; Duende, winner of the James Laughlin Award; and The Body’s Question, winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize. She is also the editor of an anthology, American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time, and the author of a memoir, Ordinary Light, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. From 2017 to 2019, Smith served as Poet Laureate of the United States. She teaches at Princeton University.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
January 23, 2026
It’s probably my enthusiasm in the moment of reading that leads me to give this little book the full five stars, but I’m still exhilarated, drunk on the reading, so what the heck.
Tracy K. Smith has the poet’s discipline of making every word count and resonate—as you can see from its title. In fact, the “fear” on the menu doesn’t last long, she dispenses with the idea that poetry is somehow intimidating pretty quickly, and the poems she selects for examination mostly avoid obscurity. Nevertheless, it’s very much a book about having courage, in various ways.
Each chapter or essay focuses on a small handful of poems as a way to clarify how a person can read poetry attentively. Smith patiently explains different poetic forms and how they contribute, sometimes subliminally, to the illumination of the subject. She gives her own attention to the poems quoted, often line by line and word by word, so that she can demonstrate to readers what techniques they might use to tease out the finer meanings hidden in a poem. In the last chapter she goes through the elements of a poem from title to last line, explaining the role of each.
But this book is more than a how-to-read text. Her selection criteria for the poems highlighted tell a second story—one that speaks to the “perilous times” of the subtitle. They are written by women and people of color, written by people who don’t traditionally hold a prominent place in American discourse, and they speak to the power of poetry to make overlooked people’s voices ring out across our awareness. In this regard her claims for poetry are both humble and expansive, which lends a dynamic tension to her writing at times.
The chapter “Who Are You?”—which begins with Emily Dickinson’s famous poem—is a masterpiece that stands out even in a book so rich in insights. Its observations are illuminating in their own right, individually, but also cohere and build on one another into something larger than the sum of its parts.
I learned more about poetry and how to read it, and I also learned more about the world and how to see it, about my heart and how to know it. This book is a treasure for anyone who likes to stop and think.
Tracy K. Smith has the poet’s discipline of making every word count and resonate—as you can see from its title. In fact, the “fear” on the menu doesn’t last long, she dispenses with the idea that poetry is somehow intimidating pretty quickly, and the poems she selects for examination mostly avoid obscurity. Nevertheless, it’s very much a book about having courage, in various ways.
Each chapter or essay focuses on a small handful of poems as a way to clarify how a person can read poetry attentively. Smith patiently explains different poetic forms and how they contribute, sometimes subliminally, to the illumination of the subject. She gives her own attention to the poems quoted, often line by line and word by word, so that she can demonstrate to readers what techniques they might use to tease out the finer meanings hidden in a poem. In the last chapter she goes through the elements of a poem from title to last line, explaining the role of each.
But this book is more than a how-to-read text. Her selection criteria for the poems highlighted tell a second story—one that speaks to the “perilous times” of the subtitle. They are written by women and people of color, written by people who don’t traditionally hold a prominent place in American discourse, and they speak to the power of poetry to make overlooked people’s voices ring out across our awareness. In this regard her claims for poetry are both humble and expansive, which lends a dynamic tension to her writing at times.
The chapter “Who Are You?”—which begins with Emily Dickinson’s famous poem—is a masterpiece that stands out even in a book so rich in insights. Its observations are illuminating in their own right, individually, but also cohere and build on one another into something larger than the sum of its parts.
I learned more about poetry and how to read it, and I also learned more about the world and how to see it, about my heart and how to know it. This book is a treasure for anyone who likes to stop and think.
November 10, 2025
What I mean is, I don’t always understand the poems I admire. Sometimes poems operate by a logic that eludes me, the way dreams often do. from Fear Less by Tracy K. Smith
“You don’t always have to understand it,” Tracy K. Smith assures us about poetry. Let the poem take you on a journey. It will lead you to notice something, feel something, understand something. A poem might save your life or open your eyes to startling new insights. Don’t be afraid of poetry.
Smith leads readers into understanding poetry that moves her, drawing from poems classic and contemporary. She tells us her reactions and insights to the poem and considers how the poem’s structure and words and images work to create her reaction. She discusses how poetry addresses significant personal and cultural issues.
Smith was six when she read Old Hogan’s Goat, which appeared in my earliest piano book lesson as Bill Grogan’s Goat. It is a humorous story of a goat who eats six red shirts and is tied to the railroad track for punishment, but coughing up the shirts flags down the train just in time. And yet out of this slight comedic lyric, Smith finds deeper meaning about “power, surrender, repentance,(…)reconciliation.”
It is stunning to read the depths Smith draws from the poems. And yet, in the end, I do love the way a poem cleaves my heart, a precious flame, mystical, even if I don’t understand it deeply.
Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.
“You don’t always have to understand it,” Tracy K. Smith assures us about poetry. Let the poem take you on a journey. It will lead you to notice something, feel something, understand something. A poem might save your life or open your eyes to startling new insights. Don’t be afraid of poetry.
Smith leads readers into understanding poetry that moves her, drawing from poems classic and contemporary. She tells us her reactions and insights to the poem and considers how the poem’s structure and words and images work to create her reaction. She discusses how poetry addresses significant personal and cultural issues.
Smith was six when she read Old Hogan’s Goat, which appeared in my earliest piano book lesson as Bill Grogan’s Goat. It is a humorous story of a goat who eats six red shirts and is tied to the railroad track for punishment, but coughing up the shirts flags down the train just in time. And yet out of this slight comedic lyric, Smith finds deeper meaning about “power, surrender, repentance,(…)reconciliation.”
It is stunning to read the depths Smith draws from the poems. And yet, in the end, I do love the way a poem cleaves my heart, a precious flame, mystical, even if I don’t understand it deeply.
Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.
January 21, 2026
I enjoyed this book. Tracy Smith wants more people to enjoy reading poetry and thus allow it to better confront life's many uncertainties and losses and understand ourselves and others more fully. In this slim volume she grounds readers in the craft and walks us through analyzing poems by many of her favorite poets. Smith comes across as someone who is gentle, caring, thoughtful and open. The book is also deep, concerned with how poems can change us as individuals, our relationships with others, and finally, society as a whole for the better.
Read
February 10, 2026I am so glad I read Tracy K. Smith’s 𝘍𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘓𝘦𝘴𝘴: 𝘗𝘰𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴. Ms. Smith served as the 22nd Poet Laureate, has written five collections of poetry including one that won the Pulitzer Prize, and is currently the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard. I point all this out just because she knows her stuff. I found Tracy K. Smith thanks to 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 podcast she hosted.
Possibly annoyingly so, I am a proponent of reading and writing anything. Smith encourages reading and writing poetry. From the book flap, “Smith shows us how reading and writing poetry allows us better to confront life’s many uncertainties and losses, build camaraderie with strangers, and understand ourselves more fully.” YES!
I know I didn’t understand everything TKS wrote in this book, but the parts I did comprehend were felt in my heart and soul.
: …it was the desire to listen at the widest possible angle… (5)
: If we let them, poems also encourage the difficult notion that your life ought to be as important to me as my own life is; that I can only truly honor and protect myself by honoring and protecting you. (7)
: Just a few moments with the volume in his hands, and it was as if the poem itself had sought him out, offering to provide a fresh vocabulary for talking about the hardest parts of his life. (9)
: Think of the many tools that have emerged to minimize the bother of strangers: Selfie sticks. Self-checkout lanes. Noise-canceling headphones. Smart phones buzzing and singing with updates gloriously curated to individual appetites and needs. Strangers have been so thoroughly framed as a hassle and a distraction that online decorum permits us to rank, critique, correct, berate, and even eventually block them. Through it all, the island of self, though lashed by inevitable waves of intrusion, stands solid and secure. Or does it? Our current moment is also marked by new heights of anxiety and depression, social division, misinformation, and mistrust. (32-33)
: A poem—any poem that slows you down, draws you in and invites you to recognize, wonder and remember—is a gateway to the inner life…(33)
: And while engaging with poetry isn’t the only way to strengthen our powers of listening and responding, asking and offering, poems are remarkable in their ability to augment our stamina for such tasks…poems are acts of attention. Can we attend more rigorously, more compassionately to ourselves and others? (49)
: p. 69-70
: And a poem may instill in you an interest in strangers and an investment in their thoughts and experiences that, in turn, makes you increasingly at ease and at home in a world comprised of all manner of others. (106)
: letter p. 111
: To read or receive a poem, to consent to feel and ponder, to react and even sometimes to reply, all of those are acts with outcomes, even if we seldom seek to measure them. (119)
: Haven’t you ever wished you could pull someone in close so as to see them better or insist they take more careful stock of you? (121)
Possibly annoyingly so, I am a proponent of reading and writing anything. Smith encourages reading and writing poetry. From the book flap, “Smith shows us how reading and writing poetry allows us better to confront life’s many uncertainties and losses, build camaraderie with strangers, and understand ourselves more fully.” YES!
I know I didn’t understand everything TKS wrote in this book, but the parts I did comprehend were felt in my heart and soul.
: …it was the desire to listen at the widest possible angle… (5)
: If we let them, poems also encourage the difficult notion that your life ought to be as important to me as my own life is; that I can only truly honor and protect myself by honoring and protecting you. (7)
: Just a few moments with the volume in his hands, and it was as if the poem itself had sought him out, offering to provide a fresh vocabulary for talking about the hardest parts of his life. (9)
: Think of the many tools that have emerged to minimize the bother of strangers: Selfie sticks. Self-checkout lanes. Noise-canceling headphones. Smart phones buzzing and singing with updates gloriously curated to individual appetites and needs. Strangers have been so thoroughly framed as a hassle and a distraction that online decorum permits us to rank, critique, correct, berate, and even eventually block them. Through it all, the island of self, though lashed by inevitable waves of intrusion, stands solid and secure. Or does it? Our current moment is also marked by new heights of anxiety and depression, social division, misinformation, and mistrust. (32-33)
: A poem—any poem that slows you down, draws you in and invites you to recognize, wonder and remember—is a gateway to the inner life…(33)
: And while engaging with poetry isn’t the only way to strengthen our powers of listening and responding, asking and offering, poems are remarkable in their ability to augment our stamina for such tasks…poems are acts of attention. Can we attend more rigorously, more compassionately to ourselves and others? (49)
: p. 69-70
: And a poem may instill in you an interest in strangers and an investment in their thoughts and experiences that, in turn, makes you increasingly at ease and at home in a world comprised of all manner of others. (106)
: letter p. 111
: To read or receive a poem, to consent to feel and ponder, to react and even sometimes to reply, all of those are acts with outcomes, even if we seldom seek to measure them. (119)
: Haven’t you ever wished you could pull someone in close so as to see them better or insist they take more careful stock of you? (121)
September 30, 2025
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this early review copy.
For several years, I read from a poetry book every day. And then, about two years ago, I lost interest. It was no longer fulfilling me, maybe too much bad poetry, maybe I just was not in the right mindset. When I saw Smith’s new book, I hoped she could open my eyes to the beauty and magic of poetry again, give me a new way to engage with poetry, and bring back the joy. And she tries really hard. Some of these essays, especially the first one, resonated strongly with me.
Tracy K Smith is a genius, and the gentle hero that we all need today. I felt so uplifted while reading this. In all the upheaval in the USA lately, I've often felt alone, like the entire country is moving against me and my small group of loved ones. But reading Smith's words, I felt so reassured to know I am not alone. She's there, too, guiding us, guiding all of us if we'll let her.
But a lot of the remaining essays just felt like homework I had to do, not something I wanted to read. They didn't help me find new ways to connect.
I'm not sure who her intended audience is for these essays. One must already have some familiarity and love for poetry already in order to feel drawn to a book like this. Perhaps it's intended as an introductory text for high school students. Perhaps she intended it as a plea to the general public to give poetry a chance, to say that it can speak to all of us if we are not afraid to listen.
Each essay analyzes specific poems as a way to discuss an aspect of poetry, and she quotes from a variety of poems (in part of or in entirety) to make her point. It feels like it would make a great high school text, but it didn't do much for me. Since I read an early review copy, there were some formatting issues that made some things difficult to read. In particular, there was no table of contents, so I made one for myself as I read. My e-copy has no page numbers, so I referenced the percentage instead:
A Poem Is a Tool for Careful Listening - 2%
Falling Awake: Poetry and the Work of the Unconscious - 10%
Any Small Thing Can Save You: On Grief and Accountability 29%
Who Are You?: On Strangers and Others - 47%
Feats of Consciousness: Poetry Is a Redeeming Act - 67%
Be Ye Not Afraid: A Brief Guide to What Poems Are and How They Do What They Do - 69%
1. What is a Poem? 69%
2. Who is Speaking? 70%
3. The Title 72%
4. Images 74%
5. Form 77%
6. A poem’s closure 81%
7. On Judgment 84%
Acknowledgements - 86%
Appendix of Poets - 87%
Notes - 97%
This is a difficult book for me to rate.
The opening essay: 5 stars
My personal reading experience of the entire collection, as a lay person: 3 stars
As a hypothetical school text: 5 stars
For several years, I read from a poetry book every day. And then, about two years ago, I lost interest. It was no longer fulfilling me, maybe too much bad poetry, maybe I just was not in the right mindset. When I saw Smith’s new book, I hoped she could open my eyes to the beauty and magic of poetry again, give me a new way to engage with poetry, and bring back the joy. And she tries really hard. Some of these essays, especially the first one, resonated strongly with me.
Tracy K Smith is a genius, and the gentle hero that we all need today. I felt so uplifted while reading this. In all the upheaval in the USA lately, I've often felt alone, like the entire country is moving against me and my small group of loved ones. But reading Smith's words, I felt so reassured to know I am not alone. She's there, too, guiding us, guiding all of us if we'll let her.
But a lot of the remaining essays just felt like homework I had to do, not something I wanted to read. They didn't help me find new ways to connect.
I'm not sure who her intended audience is for these essays. One must already have some familiarity and love for poetry already in order to feel drawn to a book like this. Perhaps it's intended as an introductory text for high school students. Perhaps she intended it as a plea to the general public to give poetry a chance, to say that it can speak to all of us if we are not afraid to listen.
Each essay analyzes specific poems as a way to discuss an aspect of poetry, and she quotes from a variety of poems (in part of or in entirety) to make her point. It feels like it would make a great high school text, but it didn't do much for me. Since I read an early review copy, there were some formatting issues that made some things difficult to read. In particular, there was no table of contents, so I made one for myself as I read. My e-copy has no page numbers, so I referenced the percentage instead:
A Poem Is a Tool for Careful Listening - 2%
Falling Awake: Poetry and the Work of the Unconscious - 10%
Any Small Thing Can Save You: On Grief and Accountability 29%
Who Are You?: On Strangers and Others - 47%
Feats of Consciousness: Poetry Is a Redeeming Act - 67%
Be Ye Not Afraid: A Brief Guide to What Poems Are and How They Do What They Do - 69%
1. What is a Poem? 69%
2. Who is Speaking? 70%
3. The Title 72%
4. Images 74%
5. Form 77%
6. A poem’s closure 81%
7. On Judgment 84%
Acknowledgements - 86%
Appendix of Poets - 87%
Notes - 97%
This is a difficult book for me to rate.
The opening essay: 5 stars
My personal reading experience of the entire collection, as a lay person: 3 stars
As a hypothetical school text: 5 stars
December 24, 2025
Thank you to Norton for providing me with an ARC of this release.
Though I am someone who felt he didn't need reminders about the power and strength of poetry, Smith's meditations on its possibilities truly affected me. At the same time, the book's message and intent may be inaccessible to an audience which could benefit from diving into poetry, because Smith is largely preaching to the choir here--I don't think many aside from those who already love poetry, or literature besides, will pick it up.
It's also unwieldy in idealism, quite optimistic in its scope or expectations. As we are mired in the death of media literacy, abetted by the powers that be which she refers to often within the book, pitting us against each other in endless competition, compelling people to engage in poetry and with others' stories and perspectives is a grand proposition.
The collection smacks of memoir at times as well, as Smith relates her time as US Poet Laureate. The focus of the work is further puzzling as a consequence.
I did enjoy and resonate with her conception of the poem and how to immerse or lose yourself and let go of your preconceptions as you read a poem, to renounce the expectation of "resolution" or even "truth", to simply experience the sensory language and feelings it summons.
If anything, it calls for action, which may spur people passionate about poetry to share their enthusiasm with others. It may be the opposite of polemic, much needed in these reactive times where everyone is ready with an opinion piece or general fierce criticism, rather than sitting down to understand others' perspectives and experiences.
Though I am someone who felt he didn't need reminders about the power and strength of poetry, Smith's meditations on its possibilities truly affected me. At the same time, the book's message and intent may be inaccessible to an audience which could benefit from diving into poetry, because Smith is largely preaching to the choir here--I don't think many aside from those who already love poetry, or literature besides, will pick it up.
It's also unwieldy in idealism, quite optimistic in its scope or expectations. As we are mired in the death of media literacy, abetted by the powers that be which she refers to often within the book, pitting us against each other in endless competition, compelling people to engage in poetry and with others' stories and perspectives is a grand proposition.
The collection smacks of memoir at times as well, as Smith relates her time as US Poet Laureate. The focus of the work is further puzzling as a consequence.
I did enjoy and resonate with her conception of the poem and how to immerse or lose yourself and let go of your preconceptions as you read a poem, to renounce the expectation of "resolution" or even "truth", to simply experience the sensory language and feelings it summons.
If anything, it calls for action, which may spur people passionate about poetry to share their enthusiasm with others. It may be the opposite of polemic, much needed in these reactive times where everyone is ready with an opinion piece or general fierce criticism, rather than sitting down to understand others' perspectives and experiences.
January 20, 2026
Every book I have ever read about why poetry matters has been bad, which gives me insight into how difficult it must be to talk about poetry, this nebulous, vast, spiritual thing. Which is why I'm all the more astonished by how incredibly right Tracy K. Smith gets it.
She brings us into our very favorite English classrooms (or gives us a peek of what that could feel like if we hated English class), into the streets, the news, the depths of history. I love how she collapsed the role of the writer and the reader, showing how poetry is like a chisel for carving your way to some kind of discovery, no matter which side of a poem you're on.
My friend recently pointed out that most people are talking about problems without bringing up solutions, but this book is entirely solutions-based. Tracy K. Smith makes compelling and practical arguments for poetry as a tool for meaningful civic engagement, for stretching our tolerance of ambiguity, nuance, and variety, and "to pitch our imagining beyond the radius of ordinary occurrence."
I highly recommend English teachers, professors, and students assign, read, and discuss Fear Less.
"I would like to convince you that poems, if you allow them to, can help you love every other thing around you."
She brings us into our very favorite English classrooms (or gives us a peek of what that could feel like if we hated English class), into the streets, the news, the depths of history. I love how she collapsed the role of the writer and the reader, showing how poetry is like a chisel for carving your way to some kind of discovery, no matter which side of a poem you're on.
My friend recently pointed out that most people are talking about problems without bringing up solutions, but this book is entirely solutions-based. Tracy K. Smith makes compelling and practical arguments for poetry as a tool for meaningful civic engagement, for stretching our tolerance of ambiguity, nuance, and variety, and "to pitch our imagining beyond the radius of ordinary occurrence."
I highly recommend English teachers, professors, and students assign, read, and discuss Fear Less.
"I would like to convince you that poems, if you allow them to, can help you love every other thing around you."
January 20, 2026
Thoughtful, motivational, and accessible meditations on interpreting and enjoying poetry from an impressive poet herself and former Poet Laureate, Smith’s book is not a quick read but one that demands you be present for every explicating sentence. Her explanations on reading and understanding a poem are a joy and a poetic journey in themselves. I highly suggest this to anyone who craves an understanding of how poetry is both a balm and a free expression. I can see someone re-reading parts of this book often and perceiving another layer of comprehension. Smith’s choices of poetry invite me experience new and known poets. A gratifying experience full of quotable sentences and poems. Especially helpful to me was her section: Be ye not afraid: a brief guide to what poems are and how they do what they do. Her rumination on Fear and combating it should be necessary reading for all thinking adults. Readers who enjoy critical analysis of literature must pick this up. Readalikes may be Padraig O. Tuama’s Poetry Unbound, Jennifer Michael Hecht’s The Wonder Paradox, and Ross Gay’s Inciting Joy, essays on joy.
August 16, 2025
Really wasn't a fan of this.
Right off the bat the intended audience is so unclear that i only really know who the intended readers are because the author states directly that it is for both lovers of poetry as well as people new to poetry. You shouldn't have to tell me that. The book also fails to work well for either of these two groups. It fails to work well as a book for readers well versed in poetry by over explaining basic concepts and overall not doing anything very inventive or compelling, and it also fails to work well as a book for introductory readers by being so overly flowery and pretentious that it isolates itself within an air that only people very interested in poetry would enjoy. It ends up landing in a middle space that feels suitable for a book you would be required to read for a freshman college poetry course and nowhere else.
The content overall was fine. I wouldn't call it good or bad. It certainly has potential. I just wish it would commit to either a higher or lower level audience. The middle ground really tanks it for me.
Right off the bat the intended audience is so unclear that i only really know who the intended readers are because the author states directly that it is for both lovers of poetry as well as people new to poetry. You shouldn't have to tell me that. The book also fails to work well for either of these two groups. It fails to work well as a book for readers well versed in poetry by over explaining basic concepts and overall not doing anything very inventive or compelling, and it also fails to work well as a book for introductory readers by being so overly flowery and pretentious that it isolates itself within an air that only people very interested in poetry would enjoy. It ends up landing in a middle space that feels suitable for a book you would be required to read for a freshman college poetry course and nowhere else.
The content overall was fine. I wouldn't call it good or bad. It certainly has potential. I just wish it would commit to either a higher or lower level audience. The middle ground really tanks it for me.
November 11, 2025
In Fear Less, Tracy K. Smith explores the power of poetry to connect us to ourselves and to each other. She starts by sharing her work as US Poet Laureate, reading and discussing poetry with disparate groups of people and repeatedly observing how a poem can tap into forgotten knowledge and experience and reveal common ground between people. From there, Smith goes on to offer a master class in close reading and thoughtful questioning of a poem. She places classics from Dickinson, Millay, and others alongside the work of modern poets, and slowly peers into the heart of each poem. Her process is meditative—an antidote to the distracted, half-skimming way that most of us read these days. Poetry lends itself to that kind of slowed-down approach and trains us to extend that to other experiences. Fear Less is a beautiful reminder of how human and how necessary that kind of slowing down is.
My thanks to Norton and NetGalley for providing me with a review copy of Fear Less.
My thanks to Norton and NetGalley for providing me with a review copy of Fear Less.
January 17, 2026
Outstanding. Should be required reading. The poems she chooses, the voices she elevates, her explanations -- they're why poetry is so urgent and necessary and vital right now and always. Why they are an expression of humanity.
"As with the ultra-black fish in Bulley's erasure, a poem impels its reader to "find / & enter into relation with [an] other" by way of the poem's speaker. In this way, a poem is like an eagerly awaited letter from a stranger." p. 106
"Another [reason for her emphasis on observation over judgment] extends from the belief that poems do. not emerge from the wish to appeal to a reader's taste or judgment, but rather to grapple productively with a question, problem, or conundrum. When I'm writing a poem, I'm seeking clarify and fright, the kind of brush with truth the prophet Moses is said to have had before staggering back down from the mountain with stone tablets in hand and hair that had been startled white." p.149
"As with the ultra-black fish in Bulley's erasure, a poem impels its reader to "find / & enter into relation with [an] other" by way of the poem's speaker. In this way, a poem is like an eagerly awaited letter from a stranger." p. 106
"Another [reason for her emphasis on observation over judgment] extends from the belief that poems do. not emerge from the wish to appeal to a reader's taste or judgment, but rather to grapple productively with a question, problem, or conundrum. When I'm writing a poem, I'm seeking clarify and fright, the kind of brush with truth the prophet Moses is said to have had before staggering back down from the mountain with stone tablets in hand and hair that had been startled white." p.149
January 24, 2026
A friend, an MIT professor, a scientist who worked on the Apollo projects once said to me, “Poetry is hard.” Poetry is hard. And finally, Tracy K. Smith has told me why. She writes: “Poems exist in language, but their intention is to travel beyond the system of words and logic into systems of sound, sensation, memory, imagination, emotion, knowledge, and ultimately into insight.”
In school, so many of us were taught there was one way to read a poem. Not so. Smith teaches us that there are many ways to read a poem. We’re not looking for meaning. We’re looking for connection and transformation. Empathy. Smith sees poetry as radical transformation. She gives her readers close readings of poems by Joy Harjo, Emily Dickenson, Edna St Vincent Millay. I loved diving deeply into poetry and language with Smith. I hope you will, too.
In school, so many of us were taught there was one way to read a poem. Not so. Smith teaches us that there are many ways to read a poem. We’re not looking for meaning. We’re looking for connection and transformation. Empathy. Smith sees poetry as radical transformation. She gives her readers close readings of poems by Joy Harjo, Emily Dickenson, Edna St Vincent Millay. I loved diving deeply into poetry and language with Smith. I hope you will, too.
September 21, 2025
** Thank you to NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company for providing this E-ARC in exchange for an honest review **
An insightful exploration of poetry as a craft, inviting the reader to reflect on and potentially recontextualise how they engage with a poem. Gripping, fascinating, and truly delightful to read; Fear Less blends a demystifying analysis of the technical aspects of poetry with a reminder of the inherently political nature of art itself.
I thoroughly enjoyed myself while reading this, even if I encountered many formatting errors while reading on Kindle. I hope that those will be fixed on the official version once released, and needless to say, I now look forward to reading Tracy K. Smith's poetry.
An insightful exploration of poetry as a craft, inviting the reader to reflect on and potentially recontextualise how they engage with a poem. Gripping, fascinating, and truly delightful to read; Fear Less blends a demystifying analysis of the technical aspects of poetry with a reminder of the inherently political nature of art itself.
I thoroughly enjoyed myself while reading this, even if I encountered many formatting errors while reading on Kindle. I hope that those will be fixed on the official version once released, and needless to say, I now look forward to reading Tracy K. Smith's poetry.
December 6, 2025
I'd like to preface this by saying that I enjoy Tracy Smith as a poet. This book, however, is one of poetry criticism. Smith explores a number of poems by contemporary poets, concentrating more on intent and imagery than on poetics per se. More focus on the implied message than on how the poets examined deliver that message. I'm not very expert in literary criticism, so I could not easily trace a through-line that outlined Smith's views. But I did enjoy some observations. The formatting of my electronic copy was also a bit disruptive sometimes, but a minor concern. If you would enjoy reading the views of a modern poet on some of their contemporaries, you might enjoy this book. I personally found it a bit opaque. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC
December 15, 2025
(3.25/5) I thought the first half of this was amazing; the second half was mid to me. A great pull to contextualize poetry. 💖 “It strikes me as essential to acknowledge the willful nature inherent in the art form, and to celebrate the ingenious disobedience of which every poem is capable. Isn’t it, after all, precisely the desire to be led past expected bounds of habit and convention—habit and convention being insufficient harbors for our most urgent and confounding feelings—that leads us to the threshold of a poem?”
January 24, 2026
This book is helpful for people like me who approach poetry with trepidation. Smith helps the reader by framing her approach as a series of questions, many of which arise from things that the language of the poem brings to mind. She also breaks down the technical elements of a poem, from the title to the form and meter, word choice, and ending. And she relates a poem to its time but also suggests it timelessness. Interesting book, and maybe I will have more patience when I read poetry after this.
September 12, 2025
I am a huge fan of Tracy K. Smith's poetry. There was a lot to admire in this book. I especially enjoyed the autobiographical content and when she talked about how her poetic voice emerged and which poems inspired her as a young writer. Some of the poetry analysis felt a little less interesting, though some of it was fabulous.
Thanks to NetGalley for giving me an advanced reader copy of this book.
Thanks to NetGalley for giving me an advanced reader copy of this book.
September 16, 2025
I enjoyed the beautiful relationship of poetry and its audience conveyed in this book. As a creative myself, this body of work has inspired me to let down unnecessary guards preventing me from exploring new ways of expression so that readers of my work can be inspired without limitation.
Honored to have received this advanced reader copy.
Honored to have received this advanced reader copy.
December 16, 2025
An absolutely fascinating and enlightening dive into poetry: its forms, its power, its purpose, and so much more. Tracy K. Smith engages with and pores over words with such a sharp and loving eye, and I found myself looking at poetry in ways I had never been invited to before. Love this book. One of my favorites of the year and one I will be returning to!
December 30, 2025
Tracy K. Smith has a kind of deliberate thoughtfulness about her. In this essay collection she reflects on poetry’s place in our divisive society and invites the reader to come to poetry with their minds open.
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July 19, 2025If you want to understand poetry and maybe delve into writing some then this book will help. It will explain poetry’s effect and how it can help in times of peril.
July 20, 2025
I enjoyed Smith's guide into finding deeper meaning in the words we read and the words we miss.
November 12, 2025
A must read if you love poetry!!! Another book that I can't wait to study. I know that I will revisit this book regularly.
November 27, 2025
For anyone who reads or writes poetry or appreciates the role arts and literature play in our lives and our hope in humanity.
December 31, 2025
A book I will continue to read for a long time.
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