Wall of Sound : Kelsay Books : 9781639802135 : 1639802134 : 18 Oct 2022 : In Wall of Sound, David Stephenson's sonnets, rhymed quatrains, and blank verse illuminate a rich variety of worlds and personalities. From a steel mill to a paint factory to a police impound lot, Stephenson's poetry of place explores unexpectedly fascinating locales. He persuasively imagines the lives within a snow globe, and he draws thoughtful parallels between a casino and a mine, a crop duster and a god. Stephenson engages the reader with a conversational tone and well-chosen rhymes; the clever eye-rhyme of "watch" and "match" makes clear the frustration of a man hoping to synchronize all his timepieces. And with convincing empathy, Stephenson writes in the voices of others-animate and inanimate-including a lab rat, a match, a spacecraft, and Sir Isaac Newton. "Toolmaker" exemplifies one of the book's most effective techniques, the juxtaposition of the mundane and the profound: this poem's persona suggests