Hill is the author of a poetry collection, has published widely in literary journals, and is an editor for a university publications department. In the following essay, Hill contends that Glück's poem begins with an alluring scene and unaffected language but quickly falters into self-pity and sentimentality, robbing the poem of its effectiveness.

The first two stanzas of "The Mystery" draw the reader in with both the scene they describe and the method of their presentation. Glück's simple, declarative sentences ("I became a creature of light," "I sat in a driveway in California," "I sat in a folding chair," and so forth) belie the complexity of emotions that the speaker actually feels. In these first two stanzas, those emotions are held nicely in check by the dry candor, soft tone, and unadorned language with which the poet conveys them. If only she had...