Richard Howard's verse is elegant and cultured, tasteful and erudite. A man of learning and a connoisseur, he brings to his poetry a mind trained in the rigors of French poetics and an ear attuned to the rhythms of Ronsard as well as those of Browning.

In these days of vatic pronouncements and True Confessions, he remains a voice of civilization, a man trained in an older tradition. His poems speak clearly of his commitment to the mind and to precision of expression.

I can think of no other living poet who writes with such elegance. Only Richard Wilbur among Americans seems to come close. It is perhaps worth noting that both Wilbur and Howard are skillful translators steeped in the somewhat more controlled atmosphere of French poetry. (p. 109)

[Richard Howard] has clearly defined his own notions of poetry, and his practice reveals his fidelity to those standards...