SOURCE: "Twenty Years of Accomplishment," in The Critical Reception of Howard Nemerov: A Selection of Essays and a Bibliography, edited by Bowie Duncan, The Scarecrow Press, 1971, pp. 29-39.

In the following essay, which was originally written on the occasion of the publication of The Blue Swallows and published in Florida Quarterly in October 1968, Meinke examines the first twenty years of Nemerov's poetic career, stating "more than any other contemporary poet, Nemerov speaks to the existential, science-oriented … liberal mind of the 20th century."

It's a bad word, perhaps, but Howard Nemerov is really a philosopher. And judging from the scant space allotted him in the latest books on modern poetry, he is still one of our most underrated poets, despite a steadily widening audience (his New & Selected Poems, for example, is in its fourth printing). His latest book confirms what really has been evident since 1955 and The Salt Garden...