SOURCE: “Faith in Form,” in Times Literary Supplement, No. 4492, May 5-11, 1989, p. 495.

In the following review of Tributes, Maxwell praises Jennings's subtle use of simile and her successful use of form.

This is a craftswoman working, so watch the vowels;

          It is not only great stars or the sun I owe so many debts to. I now state A poet here, a painter there, a place That’s altered all I do. So I relate My debt and give back what I’ve taken, grace. 

Lyric poets, if honest and well practised, know enough to let the sounds run towards them and gather. Elizabeth Jennings is here writing a poetry of A's, with all the light, the aye-saying, the openess and the admission— both confessional and a letting-in—which that vowel affords.

“Tributes” (the poem quoted) strikes, naturally, the keynote of the collection, which includes paeans to Goya...