In the following essay from a scholarly book on Muir's life and work, Hixson suggests that reading First Poems (1925), which Muir published at age thirty-five, alongside The Labyrinth (1949), written after the Second World War, provides an understanding of the development of Muir's “exceptional poetic imagination.”

In the following essay, Lodge reconsiders prevailing views of Muir's political development as suggested by his autobiographical writings through an examination of his contributions to the New Age during the 1920s.

In the following essay, Gaskill examines "the various ways in which Muir's knowledge of Friedrich Hölderlin 's life and work manifests itself in his own poetry. "

In the following essay from an academic book on myth in modern poetry, Hoffman draws upon Muir's autobiographical and critical writings to uncover the significance of myth in Muir's early and later poetry. Particular attention is given to “The Ballad of the Flood,” “Scotland, 1941,” and “The Combat.”

In the following essay, Porter discusses memory and imagination in The Story and the Fable and An Autobiography.

In the following essay, Watson identifies in Muir's poetry such central themes as the journey, the passage of time, and the randomness of evil.

In the last poem before his death Edwin Muir wrote,

In the following essay, Bruce considers the integrity—meaning the consistency, soundness, and sincerity—of Muir throughout his career as a literary critic and a poet.

In the following essay, Summers surveys Muir's most important works in such genres as autobiography, criticism, and poetry,

In the following essay, Phillips surveys critical assessments of Muir's work.

In the following essay from an academic study on Muir, Knight examines the influence of Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil in Muir's poetry, particularly “The Three Mirrors.” In addition to analyzing several other poems, including “The Myth” and “Comfort in Self-Despite,” the author draws upon Muir's An Autobiography and other autobiographical essays to explicate Muir's understanding of Nietzsche's ideas.

In the following essay, Keeble discusses the major symbols, themes, and philosophical views apparent in Muir's poetry.

In the following essay, Mellown provides an overview of First Poems (1925), Chorus of the Newly Dead (1929), Six Poems (1932), Variations on a Time Theme (1934), and Journeys and Places (1937).

In the following essay, Holloway assesses the relation of Muir's poetry to modern literary movements and cultural trends.

In the following essay, Mellown traces Muir's artistic development through an examination of his use of autobiographical material in The Marionette, The Brothers, and Poor Tom.

In the following essay, Fleishman compares Muir's autobiographical writing in The Story and the Fable and An Autobiography focusing on his mythic interpretation of his experiences in the latter.

In the following essay, Mills examines key subjects and themes in Muir's later poetry.

In the following essay, poet and literary critic R. P. Blackmur argues that Muir is an “unprofessional poet” who nevertheless produces “hard and interesting things … out of honest and endless effort and the general materials of [his language.” The essay provides an assessment of Muir's contribution to poetry, comparing him to John Keats, Emily Dickinson, and Virgil along the way.]

In the following essay from a book-length work on mysticism in poets such as Yeats, Blake, and Coleridge, Raine—a poet and literary critic—considers the use of fable and universal archetypes, along with influences from Scottish ballads and German literature, in the poetry of Muir.

In the following essay, Wiseman discusses Muir's poems of the late 1950s.

In the following essay, Bouson discusses Muir's attempts to elucidate through poetry such fundamental human experiences as the passage of time and the loss of innocence.

In the following essay, Mellown traces Muir's influence as a translator and critic of the works of Franz Kafka.

In the following essay, McCulloch,explores the relevance of Muir's strict Calvinist upbringing to his poetry and examines his use of Christian and Greek myth.

In the following essay, Wiseman offers a close examination of "The Labyrinth, " particularly focusing on Muir's symbolist techniques and the nonlogical structure of the poem.

In the following essay, Richman explores the theme of mythic journeys that pervade Muir's poetry and laments the loss of “a sense of communal past” that appears to preclude popularity for poetry that, like Muir's, addresses “great themes” rather than focus on the personal.

In the following essay from an anthology about Scottish writers, Crawford reflects upon the ways in which such poems as “The Good Town,” “After a Hypothetical War,” “The Interrogation,” and “The Castle” address “particular and general aspects of man's inhumanity to man.”

In the following essay, McCulloch analyzes how Muir's experience in Prague, translating Kafka, and working with Czech refugees influenced his religious and political views and his development as a poet.

In the following essay, Fraser elaborates on images of Eden and Christian themes in several of Muir's poems, including “The Journey Back,” “The Myth,” and “In Love for Long.”

In the following examination of "Day and Night, " Huberman traces "a pattern of development from manuscript to poem. "

In the following essay, Dodd and Lapsley argue that the central concern of Muir's autobiography is neither self-reflection nor self-definition, but an inquiry into the definition of humanness.

In the following essay, Garber focuses on Muir's use of symbols and images from heraldic tradition in his poetry.

In the following essay, DiPiero reflects on Muir's contributions to poetry and concludes that Muir's poetry embodies a struggle against what Muir called “the cry of historical necessity over the life of the individual.” The author calls Muir a religious poet whose language eschews “sacred decoration,” and whose works are informed by “a sense of decency” and “human goodness and kindness.”

In the following essay, Frisardi suggests that unlike the work of Muir's more explicitly political contemporaries, his poetry reimagines history as an internal event, which it depicts economically and with compelling imagery. Frisardi draws upon poems such as “The Usurpers” and “The Clouds” as examples.

In the following essay, Di Piero considers sources, themes, and philosophical viewpoint in Muir's poetry.

In the following essay, Huberman discusses innocence and experience in "The Gate. "

In the following essay, Taylor discusses Muir's repeated use of the story of Penelope in his poems.

In the following excerpt from a longer chapter in an academic study, Daiches considers the ways in which Muir's poetry and autobiographical works communicate “his shifting visions of human fate through the exploration and adaptation of history and myth and personal feeling.” Particular attention is paid to Christian theology and Greek myth, along with Muir's use of personae, in “The Return,” “Adam's Fall,” “One Foot in Eden,” and ...

In the following essay, Merton discusses Muir's poetry in relation to the views advanced in his critical writings and lectures.

In the following essay, Joselyn identifies similarities in the poetry of George Herbert and Muir.

In the following review of Edwin Muir's Collected Poems, poet W. S. Merwin compares Muir to Robert Frost, W. B. Yeats, and William Wordsworth, and explores the duality of Muir's idealism as reflected in poems such as “Variations on a Time Theme,” “The Annunciation,” “The Island,” and “The Animals.”

In the following brief essay, Carruth, an award-winning American poet, praises Muir's treatment of time, our moment in history, and eternity in such poems as “The Escape,” “The Interrogation,” and “All We.”

In the following review, Smith praises Muir's letters.

In the following review of Muir's Collected Poems, Friar provides an overview of the major themes of Muir's poetry: the tension between time and eternity, the horror of the first and second world wars as symbols of “life at its most material and unreal,” and life-long the journey from childhood to old age and death.

In the following essay, Carruth reviews An Autobiography and discusses the relation of the work to Muir's achievement in poetry,

In the following review, Wolfe identifies the strengths of Muir's early poems.

In the following review, Luhrs focuses on structure and mood in First Poems.