SOURCE: George, Diana Hume. Review of Nurture, by Maxine Kumin. Georgia Review 43, no. 2 (summer 1989): 425-26.

In the following review, George highlights the environmental themes in Nurture, noting a movement in Kumin's verse toward global and ecological issues.

In Nurture Maxine Kumin continues to explore many of the themes that for decades have compellingly informed her poetry, fiction, and meditative essays: the clear and present delights of the natural world and our connections with it as creatures who know we are part of it; our responsibility toward more fragile forms of life on the planet we share; the necessity of endurance in the face of odds we cannot finally beat; the salvaging of human care and love from the wreckage of time and loss; the significance of legacy and continuity in a world of mortal mutability.

She means to make us ponder lovingly the webs of relationship that bind...