SOURCE: "Prelude to Adventure," in Poetry, Vol. 36, No. 4, July, 1930, pp. 218-23.

In the following review of Intellectual Things, the critic states that Kunitz shows promise as a poet, praises his gift for melody but cautions him against stylization.

Enough of the probing seriousness and curiosity of a keen poetic intelligence is exhibited in [Intellectual Things] to warrant a considerable confidence in the talents of the author, and in his future work. With a public career little more than a year old, he has issued a collection marked by unquestionable faults and insecurities, but one in which a trait of real lyric individuality emerges.

Mr. Kunitz shares his faults with a large company of contemporaries, and they may be traced largely to an attempt, in many ways laudable, to develop a new lyric fashion. In his case certain merits indicate that genuine style will result, provided the poet is...