Though Laurie Lee's poetry is highly subjective, he was not one of the neoromantic Apocalyptics, nor is his work as intellectually rigorous or esoteric as that of other contemporary poets dubbed "romantic," such as John Heath-Stubbs. And while his work reflects a gentle humility, he is not an overtly Christian poet like Anne Ridler. Yet he shares with all these writers an emphasis on personal vision. Reacting against the poetry of slightly older contemporaries from the Auden generation, who insisted that a poet's main concerns must include social protest or social reportage, Lee is part of a general redirection of poetry in the early 1940s toward reinstating the validity of personal vision. Essentially a lyric poet, Lee was often moved by the countryside around him and by memories of his childhood in the Midlands. This emotional intensity resulted in a slender, but always sensuously arresting, poetic output.

Laurie...