In the following excerpt, Ludvigson writes about the range of Kumin's poetry.

Life may not be wholly rational, Maxine Kumin says in her poetry, but it is to some degree manageable. In a period when most contemporary poetry reflects a chaotic and meaningless universe, Kumin is one of a handful of poets who insist upon order - upon finding or creating meaning where others deny it exists. Working primarily in traditional poetic forms, Kumin structures her poems as a way of controlling her world. She says in a Massachusetts Review interview, "I think that there is an order to be discovered - that's very often true in the natural world - but there is also an order that a human can impose on the chaos of events. That's what writing poetry is all about. You begin with the chaos of impressions and feelings, this aura that overtakes...