There are 23 poems in the section, "Mandolin", in Dove's book, THOMAS AND BEULAH (1986). The whole book is reprinted in her COLLECTED POEMS: 1974-2004.
From the poem, "Variation On Pain":
"He lay on the bunk, mandolin
In his arms. Two strings
For each note and seventeen
Frets; ridged sound
Humming beneath calloused
Fingertips."
One of the book review writers for the New York Times thinks Dove should get a Nobel Prize for Literature.
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