I think it is fair to suggest that a poem like [the title poem of his collection This Journey] speaks of Wright's understanding of his situation, which is the mortal situation, common to all of us, of course, but mortal in the extraordinary sense of the word too, in the sense of his own imminent mortality, and the reconciliation of the poet that already-passed sentence of doom. It is also fair to observe about that poem that it contains not only some of the themes of this book, but also the echoes of much of Wright's past work too: a verbal reticence or quietness, a gentle kind of toughness, a patient tenderness and tender-heartedness, and a stoic strength….

Most of this book offers poems about places in Italy and France, for Wright spent a good deal of time in the Mediterranean region in his last period, and wrote...