The subtlety [of Duncan's 'Strawberries Under The Snow', in his The First Decade,] is in the tempo, which quickens then slows then quickens again; and it is in the repetition of words and phrases, a shutting movement that creates lingering effects as the ear hears again in a new phrasing what it had heard shortly before. All is precise yet almost dreamy, accurate yet enchanted…. Duncan is [near] the visual directness Blake achieves when, 'On a cloud I saw a child', or the equally direct speech of Yeats, 'Come away Oh human child/To the waters and the wild', instances in which highly sophisticated adult minds move into perfect balance with beautifully unsophisticated childhood. In 'Strawberries Under The Snow' Duncan achieves such balance. But his poem is very different from Blake or Yeats because his language is different, in a modern mode. (pp. 71-2)

As his life in...