Poet Brad Leithauser, who'll be reading from his latest collection of poetry, Toad to a Nightingale, Saturday afternoon at Politics and Prose, published his first collection of poetry, Hundreds of Fireflies, in 1982. He was probably unprepared for the attention it received, not so much for what it contained, but for what it lacked: the collection was, for the most part, completely absent of poetry influenced by High-Modernist, experimental "free verse." In other words: poetry that seemed purposefully obscure and incomprehensible, poetry full of what Philip Larkin described as "teased out obscurities," author-based poetry that communicated practically nothing to the common reader -- or any reader, for that matter.

To the contrary, Hundreds of Fireflies was simultaneously "new" and "old," full of metrical verse that scanned and (in some cases) rhymed, aspects of poetry that many Modernist poets had long ago abandoned in favor of poetic experiment. Soon other poets such as Dana Gioia (currently the head of the National Endowment for the Arts), Leithauser's wife Mary Jo Salter, Tim Steele, Wyatt Prunty, Tom Disch, Marilyn Hacker and Molly Peacock were, like Leithauser, helping reinvigorate America poetry by writing narrative, metrical verse and by infusing long-forgotten verse forms like the sestina, the villanelle and the rondeau with new life and energy. No doubt the "New Formalists," as they came to be called, probably found it ironic that they were getting attention for supposedly bringing to American poetry what they probably felt should have been there to begin with.

DCist corresponded briefly with Brad Leithauser about his latest collection, a collaboration with his brother, illustrator Mark Leithauser.

In past works, you've often successfully combined genres for fascinating results. In what way is Toad to a Nightingale another example of that tendency?

As a writer, I'm fond of what I think of as border-blending-the mixing up of genres. No project I've ever written gave me more pleasure than Darlington's Fall, a novel in verse. My newest book blends borders in various ways. For one thing, it isn't "my" book but "our" book -- collaboration between me and my brother. It consists of light verse (mine) and drawings (his). But the light verse too is meant to be something of a blend -- a hybrid of light verse and serious verse.

This "border-blending" also means you have a wider audience, right?

The publisher's fear with Toad to a Nightingale (meant to be the world's worst pun on "Ode to a Nightingale" -- I'm trying to mix some parody in here too) is that it winds up being a book for no one: the drawings putting off the adults (who think of it as a kid's book) and the vocabulary and diction putting off the kids (who think of it as an adult's book). But I'd like to think it's a book for everyone, or nearly everyone -- as, say, Edward Lear or Lewis Carroll or Walter de la Mare or Ed Gorey are for everyone.

Brad Leithauser and Mark Leithauser will sign copies of Toad to a Nightingale at Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Avenue NW on Saturday, Nov. 24 at 1 p.m.