The Invention of the Darling
Poems
31 March 2026
Territory Rights — Worldwide.
Description
Acclaimed poet Li-Young Lee offers a revelatory volume of ecstatic poems that search out divine voices in the silences of life, love and death
“The poet of rapture and tenderness” (Major Jackson, American Poets), Li-Young Lee speaks these poems with the intimacy and primacy of a whisper, as if from a lover to a beloved, or a believer to God. Each poem in The Invention of the Darling is a mysterious conjunction of spirit and matter, movement and stillness, the divine and the mundane, the sacred and the forbidden. They yearn for holistic union with The Beloved, every sentence another name for The Beloved, every poem another way to say “I love you”. Forged in awe of life and love, these poems emerge from the unlit depths of our earthly, material desires and our deepest fears of mortality.
Reviews
"Countless gorgeous details provide, in poem after poem, distinct delights." — Dan Chiasson, The New Yorker
"[Lee] challenges readers to think and to feel more deeply." — Elizabeth Lund, The Washington Post
"Few poets write like Li-Young Lee…facing the biggest and broadest questions head-on…Fewer still ask these questions so well, and so movingly." — Craig Morgan Teicher, The Los Angeles Times
"[Li-Young] Lee’s elegance transports us into the aspirations of yearning." — David Biespiel, American Poetry Review
"Delight[s] in revelations that are holy and intimate…[Lee’s] wisdom situates itself in a fresh way." — Derek JG Williams, Rumpus
Also By: Li-Young Lee 
Dao De Jing
Paperback, 2026
A landmark translation of the timeless classic of Daoist wisdom, rendered in gorgeous poetry that illuminates its enduring teachings
Dao De Jing
Hardback, 2024
A landmark translation of the timeless classic of Daoist wisdom, rendered in gorgeous poetry that illuminates its enduring teachings
The Undressing: Poems
Paperback, 2020
Celebrated poet Li-Young Lee returns with a breathtaking new volume about the violence of desire and the peace of love.
The Undressing: Poems
E Book, 2018
“Immediate, sensual, unrelentingly intense.”—NPR
Behind My Eyes: Poems
Paperback, 2009
“Lee’s lyrics have a tidal sweep as he moves between the universe within and the world without.” —Booklist, starred review
Ebook
9780393867206
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£20.89
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