By most accounts, Jane Kenyon was flourishing as a poet when she died from leukemia, barely 48 years old. She had written four volumes of poems, and showed no signs of flagging in her work, despite husband Donald Hall's struggle with cancer and her own relentless bouts with depression. Her poetry was recognized both locally and nationally: she was honored with several awards; was named Poet Laureate of New Hampshire; received several fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts; and her poems appeared frequently in the annual series The Best American Poetry.

Many readers use words such as "accessible," "earnest," "contemplative," "spare," "reticent," and "full of common things" to describe the character of Kenyon's work. Scott Hightower of the Library Journal finds her writing "devoid of urbane ironies," and even though he was speaking specifically about her prose in A Hundred White Daffodils, the same is...