Milton Acorn remains one of the most important Canadian poets of the 20th century. This new volume solidifies Acorn's reputation and confirms his place in Canadian literature. As the editor James Deahl asserts in his introduction, Milton Acorn's poetry stands among the most challenging work produced during the last half of the twentieth century. His ability to see connections between a strange assortment of things is striking. And the reader is called up to be as agile as the poet in jumping from one idea to another.

Acorn remains a conundrum for many. He was both a communist and a traditional conservative, not at different times, but at the same time. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Prince Edward Island at the same time as the Rt Hon John Diefenbaker, former Prime Minister of Canada, received his. Acorn read deeply and widely, and in his personal library the poet had the complete works of George Grant and many volumes of the works of Stalin.