[2]: 23 It was described by newspaper The Press as "an unusual work", being "a piece of concrete poetry which transposed the title and its connotations both pictorially and anagrammatically".
[5] A review in The Press described the poems in this collection as "distinguished by an almost austere sense of self-discipline" and characterised by an "economical, suggestive manner".
[1][10] A review in Canadian Literature noted the personal nature of the collection and that it "struggles with images of framing (being "put in the picture") and of disintegration".
[12] Lonie's husband's final three volumes of poetry, published in 1984, 1986 and 1991, record the intense grief he felt about her death and his difficulties in coming to terms with it.
[13] The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature describes Lonie's poetry as having "an often impersonal tone, contrasting with its personal subject matter": "She looks at strangers, at intimates and at self with a slightly curious, and sometimes judgmental detachment.