Individual poems by [Christopher Middleton] in magazines always gave me the feeling that a genuine sensibility was at work here, and that if only I were reading some other poem of his, it would surely satisfy me completely. Well, Torse 3 ranges from obscurity to banality, and the two successful poems, "Amigos de Corazon" and "At Porthcothan," are both of them narrative, which I consider the least interesting form of poetry. Nonetheless, some of "Alba After Six Years," the first stanza of "Waterloo Bridge," and parts of "Rhododendron Estranged in Twilight," for all its indebtedness to Rilke, hold out promise of better things to come. (p. 464)

John Simon, in The Hudson Review (copyright © 1962 by The Hudson Review, Inc.; reprinted by permission), Vol. XV, No. 3, Autumn, 1962.