[Roy Fisher's] Collected Poems reveal a very interesting talent. In the pictures he draws of Birmingham, his strong sense of place works hand in hand with his affectionate awareness of people.

Denise Levertov has compared his "The City" with Paterson, which is flattering to Roy Fisher but not absurd. There is good writing both in the verse and in the prose passages which interlard it. By a careful descriptive focus on parts of the city, Roy Fisher creates an impression of it as a whole, rooting the human lives into the industrial landscape. His rhythms imply sympathy and criticism at the same time and he generates a genuine poetry by crowding unpoetic details together. Images jostle each other like slum buildings and the tone conveys a mixture of resignation and resentment. (p. 91)

Ronald Hayman, "The City and the House," in Encounter (© 1970 by Encounter Ltd.), Vol. XXXIV, No. 2, February...