Structure

Vesper Flights is a collection of 41 short essays. The author opens the collection with a brief introduction describing her hopes and goals for the works enclosed within. Each of the essays employs a similar structural presentation. In the majority of the works, the author opens with a personal anecdote, either about her childhood, her encounters with animals, or her experiences in nature with friends. These personal accounts provide the reader an immediate and vivid invitation into the essay. By describing her experiences in nature, the author places her reader in the woods, meadows, or observatories with her. She then uses these images to of the natural world or observed animal behaviors to consider human affairs. In "Tekels Park," for example, the author describes her drives past the park of her childhood; then she draws the reader into the images of her past, in order to illustrate her...