“Olds writes “poetry more faithful to the felt truth of reality than any prose could be.” – Richard Wakefield.

Beautiful Girls is not a book for the faint-hearted: it will survive as testament to poetry's force in overcoming - Chris McCabe

Not every man has gentians in his house in Soft September, at slow, Sad Michaelmas. - D.H. Lawrence 'Bavarian Gentians'

And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans, my heart gives you love. - Walt Whitman 'Dirge For Two Veterans'

With walking sick, with curtseys lame, and frighted by the scolding dame, poor Mira once again is seen within the bounds of Goslin-Green. - Mary Leapor 'The Visit'

I don't want to be one of those ivory tower writers; I want to affect people's lives.

At once catalogues of ordinary, precise vision...and poems of musical and metaphysical ambition, Maguire is the heiress of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. Adam Phillips, The Observer