[None of the poems in Dickey's The Strength of Fields] compares with his best, yet readers who know and like his work will feel at home. World War II still echoes…. Redemption through love, dumb luck, poetry, is still possible. Water, that life-threatening, life-renewing force, is pervasive, as always, in pool, river, ocean, rain, perspiration. Though there are no poems here as stunning as "Drinking From a Helmet" or "The Lifeguard," "The Voyage of the Needle," which describes the "magic" of a needle floating on surface tension, creates a magic of its own.

The poet is no longer tied to the South but has become a world citizen…. The first of "Three Poems with Yevtushenko" states one of Dickey's own obsessive themes: "I dreamed I already loved you. / I dreamed I already killed you." Sportsman, soldier, son, lover, father—all must live with the terrible guilt of having...