[That the] objective mode of lyric poetry has not died is demonstrated convincingly by [Antarctic Traveller]…. (p. 439)

[Pollitt's] primary technique is the image (not the metaphor, not the symbol) gently used to suggest meaning. Her best poems have a spare delicacy reflective of a rigorous sense of decorum—everything that wouldn't contribute directly to the primary point of the poem, one feels, has been excised from it. A good example is "Failure," which describes a person settling into a new room in the poorer part of town….

Pollitt is primarily a visual poet; the entire second part of this book is accurately subtitled "Five Poems from Japanese Paintings." And part III begins with another set of five sketches collectively called "Vegetable Poems."… It may be that poems [like "Tomato"] demand greater complexity of form, given the absence of complex meaning; there are times when just a sequence of...