Winters was loved as a teacher, and influential as a critic, which explains a continuing interest in his small body of poetic work. I was intrigued enough by these poems to read this slim volume and its critical introduction through twice. While some will find poems to admire here, I'd be surprised if many will find much to love. These are formal rather chilly poems, whether in his early Imagist period, the middle neo-Augustan poems in heroic couplets, or the finely wrought lyrics (heavily influenced by the 16th and 17th English poets) of his later work. The language is precise, hard and crystalline, but often moves almost by indirection, whether with references so specific as become hermetic, or so symbolic as to become abstract. The intensity of the expression and the clearly heavily worked surface make lapses of tone and diction seem sloppy or precious depending on you point of view. ( )