Opening with Professor Tomlinson's superbly clear and helpful introduction this selection reflects the most up-to-date Williams scholarship. In addition to including many more pieces, Tomlinson has organized the whole in chronological order.

It isn't what he [the poet] says that counts as a work of art, Williams maintained, it's what he makes, with such intensity of purpose that it lives with an intrinsic movement of its own to verify its authenticity.