Few critics appear to have written about "Drought Year," the exception being Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Clair who selected the poem for The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry (1988). Ellmann and O'Clair wrote, "The dingoes' cry in 'Drought Year' reminds us of the unseen world that remains a part of us." Is what Ellmann and O'Clair mean by "unseen world," natural impulse? It is difficult to know since "unseen world" is about as cryptic as the "dingoes' cry."

With so little criticism written on "Drought Year," it helps to examine the critical discussions about the book— The Gateway (1953)—in which the poem appears. Vincent Buckley, in 1957, compared The Gateway with Wright's first two books of poems. He provided an analysis of The Gateway also applicable to "Drought Year": "The Gateway, however, reveals an inversion of the earlier values—an inversion which is not so complete as it...