Beginning with Reasons for Moving, published in 1968, Mark Strand was hailed as a poet of piercing originality and elegance, and in the ensuing half century he has not swerved from his vision of how a poem should be shaped and what it should deliver. As he entered the stunning middle period of his career, with volumes such as The Continuous Life (1990), he was already well known for his ability to capture the subtle music of consciousness, and for creating painterly physical landscapes that coul...