In being reduced to a heavy, hard, metallic state, Uranium Poems … almost duplicate verbally the qualities of uranium. Since uranium is the radioactive element used in the making of atom bombs, Mrs. Sherwin has chosen it to represent the destructive element in man, "eager for evil, made for misrule." (p. 503)

[Uranium Poems] are too narrowly imagined, missing that "radiant gist" in pitchblende which William Carlos Williams mentions in Paterson as the salient ingredient of poetry. In spite of rhythmic experiments, some affinities with Blues, and glints of American folkloric humor … the poems resemble the unpleasant hoarse music of Wagner's smiths hammering at their forges in the Ring: a leaden, monotonous, greyish sound. (p. 504)