With a career spanning more than thirty-five years, Van Duyn has established herself as one of the great American poets. Her lengthy list of honors and awards speaks to the ongoing positive reception of her work; however, she is not without detractors. In "Mixed Company," which appeared in the New York Review of Books in 1965, Robert Mazocco notes Van Duyn's technical acumen but says, "there's no intensity, no confrontation here, only the idea of such things." In "A Clutch of Poets," which appeared in the New Republic in 1973, Louis Coxe comments on Van Duyn's use of metaphor, saying that "it is so extended that it finally trails off into not much of anything. The poet seems unwilling to quit while she is ahead and goes on telling us past the point of interest or charm." Even those who offer high praise of Van Duyn's work, sometimes...