[Hass is a very skillful poet: he is] slowly but convincingly becoming one of the best poets of his generation…. [In his work] we get a range of emotion combined with a steadiness of style. Now that sounds like a book-reviewer's formula, but it is in fact a rare achievement among poets today. We can say we recognize … a Hass poem, and still know that the dialectic of reading one is not staled by foregone conclusions. [Hass is] as "honest" as any confessional poet could hope to be; [he aspires] to and sometimes [obtains] a childlike wonder; [he is a guide, though also an interested party,] in an external, shareable world…. [Hass gives the impression he has found his words] after some effort, but that the effort and the finding have been part of the feeling, and hence inevitable and pleasurable.

Praise is Robert Hass's second book, and...