Here for the first time in one volume is a selection of the astonishing poems of Rita Dove, the nation's new Poet Laureate, the youngest poet so named, as well as the first African-American chosen for the position. Along with a new introduction and poem, Selected Poems comprises Dove's collections The Yellow House on the Corner, which includes a group of poems devoted to the themes of slavery and freedom; Museum, intimate ruminations on home and the world; and Thomas and Beulah (winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize), a verse cycle loosely based on her grandparents' lives. Precise yet intensely felt, resonant with the voices of ordinary people, Rita Dove's Selected Poems is marked by lyric intensity and compassionate storytelling.