Jarrell's dictum is that a great lyric poet writes a half-dozen great poems in his life. Gilbert clearly qualifies as one of the great American poets. The heart of his achievement is in Monolithos (1982) and Great Fires (1994), where the ratio of first-rate poems to lesser poems is quite high. His first volume, a Yale Series volume, is not as good, which is to be expected, and the two late volumes are lesser too, not because Gilbert's manner and voice have changed but rather because the writing has become less about the embodiment of emotion and more about the statement of emotion. The later poems are more like small essays than the powerful poems of the earlier decades. Having Gilbert's work all in one location like this also makes it easier to "see" Gilbert in his time. He pursued his own path, but he is still clearly an American poet of the 20th century. Most collections of poetry contain a couple of pages, at best, of first-rate work. This volume has dozens.