SOURCE: “Poets in Collected Editions,” in The Yale Review, Vol. XVII, No. 1, October, 1927, pp. 367-74.

In the following review of Selected Poems, Benet states that although Reese is limited in her subjects, she writes her style of poetry well.

Over twenty years ago a critic of poetry said of Miss Lizette Woodworth Reese, “To be rare and quaint without being fantastic, to have swift-conceiving fancy that turns into poetry the near-by thing that many overlook—this is Miss Reese's gift.” That remains true. Her Selected Poems are gathered together from small former volumes the titles of which are so indicative that I shall quote them, A Branch of May, A Handful of Lavender, A Quiet Road, A Wayside Lute, Spicewood, Wild Cherry. Herbs and simples occur and recur in her limpid stanzas. Her phrasing is all of “the pear-tree's flakes of snow,” “the smack of mint,” “gust to...