Moving gracefully with the years, William Meredith's poetry has modified its former formal elegance to a point where it can absorb casual conversation; observations of nature, human and otherwise; and meditations on art and society…. Hazard, The Painter moves gradually from [an] almost bathetic tone in the first poem to a tighter, still understated voice reminiscent of Philip Larkin's, though more optimistic, in the final poem…. Hazard is an intelligent, even charming book, full of liberal sense and sensibility. (p. 25)