SOURCE: “Main Things,” in Poetry, Vol. 151, January, 1988, pp. 360–77.

In the following excerpt, Fulton praises the sincerity and simplicity of Mueller's verse in Second Language.

Reading Lisel Mueller's fourth book, Second Language, is a bit like gazing at a lake or a tree. At first you think nothing new here: another wave, another leaf. But if you bring your full attention to bear, you're amazed at the implication and activity of an apparently simple surface. Like so many plain-style poems, these equate invisibility of craft with authenticity. The important difference here is that one does not feel manipulated by a disingenuous sincerity. There is no see-how-sensitive-I-am posing, no subtext of self-congratulation. Instead, the sensibility couples kindness with intelligence.

Mueller favors short, imagistic free verse lyrics or longer meditations in numbered sections. The sense of closure is one of the keenest pleasures of the poems. Even if the previous lines...