The new work of Marvin Bell … reflects the effects of major alteration in voice and thematic course. From the breezy charm and wit of Bell's earliest poems, which frequently assumed a vaudevillian aura, and the open-hearted emotional drive of … The Escape Into You (1971), Bell now achieves a crystallization of sense and style in Stars Which See, Stars Which Do Not See. In short, the good news is that Bell has come to create with authority instead of temperament.

This, however, is not immediately apparent. In fact, the first few poems in this volume smack of mediocrity—almost as if Bell tests us by saying, "if you can survive the bread and water of these early poems, what flaming desserts I have in store for you later." And this is exactly the case. After slumping through several merely competent pages, Bell turns on in "The Mystery of Emily Dickinson," writing: "Sometimes the weather goes on for days / but you were different. You were divine." There is conviction to this strange juxtaposition, a rightness that survives and supports the remainder of the book.

Bell's thin collection combines facets of dream, metamorphosis, and work-a-day observation to create something that at first appears to be a separate reality from the one in which we live, but on closer inspection evolves with disquieting affinities to conventional life…. [The book's distinctive title piece maneuvers in such a way, drifting] perilously close to prose, but Bell manipulates risk to his advantage, in the end exciting with a rare delicacy of phrasing and shrewd control over the poem's fate. (pp. 969-70)

[Mainly] I am impressed by this poet's increasing ability to perceive and praise small wonders. There is life and health in this book, and if sometimes Bell's expression is quiet and reserved, his talent is not. Altogether, Stars Which See, Stars Which Do Not See demonstrates an important transitional phase for the poet—a subdued, graceful vein that enables him to "speak of eyes and seasons" with an intimacy and surehandedness that informs and gratifies…. I believe Marvin Bell is on a track of the future—a mature, accessible and personalized venture into the mainstream of contemporary American verse, one beyond adolescent caterwauling and psychological minutiae, one at once devoted to craft and substance, vitality and permanence of tone. (pp. 970-71)