An appreciation of Smith's craftsmanship—his hammered gold on gold enamelling—is not to be taken … as underestimating the content and essence of his verse. It is true that Smith's poems are never editorial; he is sybilline, not megaphonic; but the purposefulness of his writing cannot be gainsaid. He has hewed to the aesthetic line with a consistency and a devotion which is reminiscent only of Rilke; he has taken for his themes the grand verities and not the minuscule ephemera; and he has written of them in a manner which is never dated, only with difficulty placed, and always inalienably personal….

News of the Phoenix, Smith's long awaited first volume illustrates on every page … his fastidious manner, his subtle tone. Here, indeed, are a hundred felicities, each in its nature technical, but each serving the purpose of enhancing and intensifying the experience which prompted it. (p. 257)

The...