The Encyclopædia Britannica calls her "a member of 'the mythopoeic school of poetry,' who expressed serious religious and philosophical themes in symbolic verse that was often lyrical or comic.
[citation needed] Between 1954 and 1963, Emblem Books published eight chapbooks featuring the work of Canadian poets,[2] including Dorothy Livesay, Alden Nowlan, and Al Purdy.
[citation needed] Her 1982 book The Spirit of Solitude is "a highly regarded study of the elegiac and pastoral traditions from the 17th century onward.
Macpherson has been described "as a 'mythopoeic' poet – rooted in the teachings of Frye, the archetypes of Carl Jung, and the intensely conservative social vision of T.S.
"[3] In technique, Macpherson has been placed "beside Margaret Avison, P. K. Page, Phyllis Webb, but especially Anne Hébert – particularly in the use of the Gothic and macabre themes and devices.
"As the ark expands into the flooded world, the body of the Biblical leviathan, and the order of nature, the design of the whole book begins to take shape.
"[citation needed] George Woodcock saw Welcoming Disaster and The Boatman as similar, even complementary: "They are narratives of journeys into spiritual day and night, disguised, no doubt, by all the devices of privacy, but nonetheless derived from true inner experiences."
"[3] Suniti Namjoshi saw it as a book about redemption: about the necessity "to hit bottom and then to make the journey up"; "after a descent into the underworld ... it is possible to return to the ordinary world of everyday life".
[5] A small park in her former Toronto neighbourhood, Jay Macpherson Green, is named for her near Avenue Road and Dupont Street.