The poems in [Ebrāhīm dar'ātash] reflect a consistently distilled quality which at times verges on obscurity. Yet almost always the imagery is breath-taking—fresh, bare and yet potent. The poem called "Mohaq," significantly dedicated to the novelist-playwright Gowhar Morad, is of shimmering lyricism and at the same time suggestive of caustic social criticism. It is primarily this latter aspect of Shamlu's poetry which has made his books widely popular among students and young intellectuals.

Poem after poem the author seems to cry out for a sense of human contact, for dignity and for beauty. A dominant note is that of near-despair as well as restlessness in the face of a life that is fleeting, passing away in paralysis or estrangement…. (pp. 839-40)