SOURCE: A review of The Love Poems of May Swenson, in World Literature Today, Vol. 67, No. 1, Winter, 1993, p. 185.

In the following review, Earnshaw praises The Love Poems of May Swenson.

The posthumous publication of May Swenson's poems celebrating Eros adds luster to the reputation of a major American poet. Swenson (1913–89) came from Logan, Utah, to enter the world of honors, awards, and fellowships as her poetry became known. She writes a language rich in sensual texture, rich in rhyme, and strong in rhythm. Still, however enchanting her wordplay or music, what strikes the reader more deeply in these poems is the intelligence of her understanding. Love, as she tells us about it, has little of the narrative or dramatic interest we might expect. Instead, she exposes the nature of attraction with the precision of a physics text revealing nature's laws. Love for her is akin to Martin Buber's...