[10] Phillips finds Welch's poems to be generally quite poor, ranking with his art (which he does not rate very highly either[11]).

[15] Nonetheless, despite their inferior status, Phillips does find in them redeeming features: vivid gothick imagery, often shocking juxtapositions (as in "Jane Allen",[16] Welch's most-reprinted poem) and a keener awareness of the war raging around him than in his prose.

Not long after they were published, the English composer Howard Ferguson set five of Welch's poems from A Last Sheaf for voice and piano.

The work, entitled Discovery, was a favourite concert piece of Kathleen Ferrier, who went on to record it.

[citation needed] Thirteen of Welch's poems were included in the text of his Journals, published the year after A Last Sheaf.