As the title [to Robert Penn Warren's Now and Then] indicates, his priority in this … volume of verse lies with the present. The poems in the first and shorter section, though they fall under the heading of "Nostalgic," are no mere sentimental journey home. With humor and affection, he recounts early observations of nature, discerning as always metaphysical suggestions in the realm of birds, sky, and stars.

Revisiting scenes of childhood, the poet finds messages of lasting import. (p. 100)

Other vignettes recall adolescent turmoil at a tent meeting where "an ex-railroad engineer / Turned revivalist shouted the Threat and the Promise," until the twelve-year-old boy fled and found his own "Amazing Grace in the Back Country" watching one star reflected in a stream; the shock of running into a now unlovely "Old Flame"; the poignancy of the "Orphanage Boy" who had to shoot his dog. These are touching autobiographical...