A clear break in Kinsella's poetic development is embodied in two collections, Poems 1956–1973 and Peppercanister Poems 1972–1978….

The earlier poems were characterized by traditional, formal logic and structure, narrative drive, and rich description. Their language was packed and lush, rigidly controlled, and they dealt with "the swallowing and absorption of bitterness." The later poems, after 1972 but anticipated by some tendencies as far back as 1965 … are characterized by apparent formlessness, a charged, compressed, associative language—a language of trance or automatic writing—and a difficult density.

Poems 1956–1973 offers the poems that established Kinsella's reputation, the anthology pieces like "Mirror in February" or "Wormwood." It is the more accessible and polished work, traditional for its first two-thirds and [sure in its grasp]…. (p. 337)

Kinsella's Catholicism, his sense of Irish history and literature and his rigorous belief in the restorative power of love are important forces shaping the early poetry. So too...