Robert P. Arthur may be the finest poet ever to target the Eastern Shore of Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay. Growing up in the small town of Melfa, he absorbed Eastern Shore language, culture, and bloodline. He says that knowledge of the water and people, storms at sea and sinking islands was "thrust" upon him; but leaving the shore as often as he did left him a preservationist at heart-this book his edifice. Into these poems he has poured not only himself but also half-forgotten towns, unpredictable stretches of water, watermen and waterwomen, oyster wars, moonshiners, and pirates, as well as sea grasses, water fowl, the photography of A. Aubrey Bodine and voices of the bay not his own. Arthur is the author of over twenty books, including poem/plays, poems, and plays, many of which focus on the Chesapeake region. His works have been performed nationally and internationally, notably in St. Petersburg, Russia. He was a finalist for Poet Laureate of Virginia in 2008 and 2010. This edition of Hymn to the Chesapeake is a full realization of the author's vision of the Hymn to the Chesapeake begun in 1973 and published by Road Publishers in 1991. The original was the best-selling book in the history of Road Publishers.