Taking its title from the first line of Charles Olson's poem "The Kingfishers," this book provides a full-scale exegesis of that milestone poem in postwar American literature. Maud demonstrates that this poem is so crucial to understanding Olson's development that a study of it takes one into every aspect of Olson's early life and thought. This long-awaited explication (Guy Davenport announced its existence and anticipated its importance in 1985) removes what has been an obstacle in the path of further study of Olson.