" Virginia Adair speaks directly and unaffectedly, in an accent stripped of mannerism and allusion. Ants on the Melon exhibits enough formal variety, freshness, and intelligence to confirm, at one stroke, that Ms. Adair is a poet of accomplishment and originality."--Brad Leithauser, The New York Times Book Review " Extraordinarily moving. Her voice is clear, assured, varied, and utterly her own."--A. Alvarez, The New York Review of Books " The rhyme is ingenious, the humor saucy and unsparing, and the author clearly takes a delight in perversity, in an inversion of the expected."--Alice Quinn, The New Yorker " How bright and unmuddled and unaffected and unswerving these poems are. There's such aplomb, no faking, such a true hard edge. They never miss."--Alice Munro " Adair writes with a thinking heart's and a feeling mind's unusual clarity. Here is a sensual, wise, precise, amazing voice."--Sharon Olds Virginia Hamilton Adair is America's most widely read and respected serious poet. Ants on the Melon has already become a landmark in the nation's literary history, and the advent of this paperback edition guarantees that her great gifts will be recognized and appreciated by an even larger audience.