[August Derleth] has made a new collection of his poems ["Rendezvous in a Landscape"] in four groups, "Homage to Thoreau," "Homage to Robert Frost," "Homage to Psyche," and "Homage to Edgar Lee Masters." The first is the longest and the best poem in the book. The poet uses brief prose passages from Thoreau's "Walden," and plays poetic variations on each one, expanding that severe economy into the wealth of its implications. This is done with genuine love and admiration, and with genuine creation. Twenty-eight poems are offered to Frost, also with sincerity, as homage.

They are Derleth poems on the sort of themes Frost might have written, and thus to gather them is to run the risk of sounding like a lesser Frost, and Mr. Derleth unfortunately does. They are beyond question his own experience, but the sound of Frost creeps in….

The Psyche group consists of four...