[The Privilege contains] intensely felt poems about deep-reaching family relationships, sharply realized memories of childhood, and odd, ambiguous, and elusive emotional experiences of adulthood. Miss Kumin's clipped, nervous verse line (even when run-on), which seems unusually consonantal in sound, proves highly various and adaptable, easily meeting the demands of the sonnet form, of which the poet provides far too few since she produces a most authentic contemporary sonnet when she tries. She is reminiscent of Millay in a detailed knowledge of closely observed natural phenomena. Similarly, all of her imagery is clear, sharp, and concrete, including that of the final section of intimate love poems. A poetic voice as distinctive as this deserves inclusion in any collection of recent American poetry.

A review of "The Privilege," in Choice (copyright © 1966 by American Library Association; reprinted by permission of the American Library Association), Vol. 2, No. 11, January, 1966. p. 772.