SOURCE: Review of Collected Poems, 1953-1985, in Choice, December, 1986, p. 625.

In the following review, Brophy outlines Jennings's importance as a poet.

Jennings is an original member of the British literary movement disarmingly called “The Movement,” which appeared in the early 1950s in part as reaction to what its founders thought were the excesses of Dylan Thomas and his romantic ilk. Philip Larkin was the best known group member; to readers in the US, Jennings was and remains the least familiar member. This collection is not a “Complete Poems,” but a selection by the poet of all the work she wishes to preserve from her 17 books that have appeared between 1953 and 1985. An earlier Collected Poems was published in 1967. Since her best work is considered to be her earlier poems—the British critic Anthony Thwaite speaks of the “thinning away” of her later work—some libraries that already own a...