“There is an overtone of Christina Rossetti in these poems, partly discernible in the hindered devotions of the 'Confessions' series and partly in the unresisted sensuality of the poems about (largely) women. 'Two Sisters' is the most disconcerting poem in this line since Goblin Market. Peirce has emotional authority and intellectual passion—an inevitable triumph.”—Richard Howard
“The poems are inspired by loss in the middle of life and the relationship of this loss to desire. What is most distinctive, however, about Peirce's struggle with the carnal is the way in which the inanimate world reveals the spiritual. Objects in time, in dream, in memory—'a dress fastened to a tree,' 'a soldier with a vase inside'—take on a vivid architectural quality that converges with her odd phrasing and direct, philosophical approach to result in an image that is nearly fused with the meditation. This book does not sound like anything else being written today.”—
Boston Review