SOURCE: In Praise of Common Things: Lizette Woodworth Reese Revisited, edited by Robert J. Jones, Greenwood Press, 1992, pp. 184.

In the following excerpt, Jones provides in-depth analysis of Reese's critical reception, use of language, and subject matter.

It is easy to love spring, difficult to find someone who dislikes it. Spring was Lizette Reese's lifelong passion; April was its focal point of ecstasy and hope. It was an extravagant but understandable use of her poetic license which permitted her to write in the title sonnet of White April, “The orchard is a pool, wherein I drown”, whence “Dripping with April, April to the heart, / I run back to the house and bolt the door!” If, indeed, she bolted the door against April, you can be sure she went right to a window to look some more. Everyone feels the impact of spring, but few can describe it well. She...