• National Book Critics Circle award for criticism
• Citation for Excellence in Reviewing from the National Book Critics Circle
• Peter I.B. Lavan Award from the Academy of American Poets
• John Masefield and Celia B. Wagner Awards from the Poetry Society of America
• J. Howard and Barbara M. J. Wood Prize from Poetry
• John William Corrington Award for Literary Excellence
• Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship

Poetry

• "Christ Among the Moneychangers, 1929", Poetry Foundation
• "from Punchinello in Chains: VI. Punchinello Dreams of Escape", Poetry Foundation
• "The Other Place", Poetry, April 2005
• "To a Wedding", Poetry, November 2008

• Sad-faced Men (1982)
• Difficulty (1985)
• Sullen Weedy Lakes ((1988)
• Vain Empires (1998), a New York Times "notable book of the year"
• Night Battle (1999)
• Macbeth in Venice (2003)
• The Whispering Gallery (2005)
• Strange Flesh (2008)

Criticism

• All the Rage (1998)
• Reputations of the Tongue (1999)
• Desperate Measures (2002)
• The Undiscovered Country (2005)
• Our Savage Art (2009)