In this semiquincentennial year, one national treasure we can all be grateful for is the Dominican-born American poet Rhina Espaillat. Both a prodigy (at fifteen, she published in Ladies’ Home Journal) and a late-bloomer (her muse went on hiatus while she taught and raised a family), Espaillat returned to poetry when she retired from the New York City public school system in 1990. Still writing at 94, she is less remarkable for her longevity than for the vision and craft that distinguish her body of work (at least fourteen books, including bilingual editions of her own work and Spanish translations of Richard Wilbur and Robert Frost). Espaillat’s new book, For Instance, is a persuasive testament to how acute insight and prosodic prowess can transform a life into extraordinary art.
