In 1954, Phyllis McGinley found an image of herself on the cover of the Saturday Review. In 1965, she found a picture of herself on the cover of Time magazine. This in itself demonstrates the significance and popularity of her poetry. In 1954, the Saturday Review praised her collection of poetry contained in her newest publication, at that time, The Love Letters of Phyllis McGinley. The article inside this magazine begins with the phrase, "The news today is that Phyllis McGinley has done it again." The message in the article is that McGinley is a proliferate writer of light verse.

No matter how she is praised, or in which publication she is praised, McGinley's name is always associated with light verse. Some critics wonder why more light verse is not written. As Gerard Previn Meyer puts it in the Saturday Review article, "why is there not more light verse...