"The prevalence of a loose 'naturalness' in contemporary poetry has made the ordinary reader a poor critic when he encounters meter, rhyme, and the like; he can't well distinguish the honest, functional use of such a means from a frilly and obtrusive formalism, and that's too bad. Still, it would take a very ordinary reader to find a culpable artificiality in Thomas Whitbred's poems. Their language has a supple openness, as of an amiable and intelligent man talking; both in its playfulness and in its gravity, it avoids the stagey; and it easily enlists any suitable form in the pursuit and sharpening of its point." - Richard Wilbur