In his introduction to The Arches (1980), B. P. Nichol divides Davey's work into three clearly defined periods, covering books published from 1963 to 1966, from 1970 to 1974, and from 1978 on, and Nichol is careful to identify those periods as stages in the development of the writing, rather than as divisions according to themes or ideas. One might just as easily divide Davey's work into four modes: those of teacher, critic, poet, and editor; such a division, of course, is always misleading, but in Davey's case it is especially so since his whole work, from the very beginning, reveals an unusual consistency of purpose and temperament. It is as though even before his apprenticeship (Nichol's first period) Davey knew what he was about as writer. Thus, his criticism is purposeful and often polemic, while at the same time he can say (in a 1964 note on the flap of Bridge Force, 1965): "I tell...