SOURCE: "Personal Statement," in The New York Times Book Review, June 23, 1968, pp. 24, 26.

An American educator and playwright, Eberhart is considered by many critics and readers to be one of the major lyric poets of this century. In the following review of The Speed of Darkness, he commends the passionate and deeply personal nature of Rukeyser's work.

The poems of Muriel Rukeyser are primordial and torrential. They pour out excitements of a large emotional force, taking in a great deal of life and giving out profound realizations of the significance of being. She has a natural force which for decades has built up monuments in words of the strong grasp on life of a strong mind.

There has always been a wide spectrum of poetic expression. We have the niceties of Marianne Moore, who allows little emotion but engages elegant subtleties of a sophisticated awareness. Another type shows the...