Such of Smith's poems as "The Archer", "A Hyacinth for Edith", and "The Plot against Proteus" were, of course, no more independent of European traditions than had been the verses of Carman and Roberts which had bored us in high school; but the traditions were now contemporary, free of the colonial time-lag, tough and demanding, while the evidence of originality in their absorption was plain. (p. 4)

As it turned out, Smith was to prove less fertile a poet than most, and, though he was to continue to set us all high standards when he did publish, his dominance was elsewhere. What happened was not merely the absorption of his energies into the profession of teaching literature (one far less friendly to the creation of it than most people outside the universities realize): it was perhaps a conscious turning from creative towards critical leadership. He became our first anthologist...