SOURCE: A review of The Wreck of the Archangel, in Publishers Weekly, Vol. 242, No. 26, June 26, 1995, p. 103.

In the following review, the critic describes the poems in The Wreck of the Archangel as "stout fare."

A poet of the Orkney Islands of northernmost Scotland, Brown (Voyages) is something of a relic. The stuff of these poems is stout fare: legends of the sea, fish and corn, crumbling kirks and stone jars full of ale. Elemental rewards are discovered in these provincial tales and evocations, as in the title poem, which opens the collection: "Then, under the lamentation of the great sea harp, / Frailty of splintering wood, scattered cries, / The Atlantic, full-blooded, plucking / And pealing on the vibrant crag." As clear images of historical and contemporary Orcadian life appear, so does the ripe intelligence of the collection; here is a real if pre-industrial culture, preserved by a skilled poet's fervent...