[Despite] the value she assigns to imagery in theory, Sarton's poems remain curiously disembodied…. [She] resorts to circumlocution, strained metaphor, abstract nouns, and constricting stanza forms. She sets up a wall between herself and her materials. (p. 273)

I think it is insufficient to dismiss her poetry, as have many reviewers, with the label "old-fashioned." "Old-fashioned" implies that Sarton is writing poetry perfectly adequate in itself but harking back to an earlier mode…. But Sarton doesn't quite bring off even those "old-fashioned" effects. Her lyrics are not reminiscent of Yeats or Hardy, two of her acknowledged influences; rather, there seems to be an unconscious split between what she wants to say—in this case, her insistence that one must be willing to take risks—and her technical apparatus…. Sarton longs, then, to "think in images" but resorts, all too often, to stock phrases and dogmatic assertion. There is insufficient...