[1] He, however, has objected to being called a New Formalist, saying that he doesn't claim to be doing anything technically novel and that Formalism "suggests, among other things, an interest in style rather than substance, whereas I believe that the two are mutually vital in any successful poem.
[3] In addition to four collections of poems, Steele is the author of two books on prosody: Missing Measures, a study of the literary and historical background of modern free verse; and All the Fun's in How You Say a Thing, an introduction to English versification.
"[9] Speaking in The Sewanee Review of The Color Wheel (1994), R. S. Gwynn said, "Timothy Steele's poetry exemplifies the order that he praises, but ultimately it is both the charity and the clarity of his vision that are most remarkable.
"[12] In an interview in 1991 with the Los Angeles Times, Steele explained his goals in using traditional poetic structure: "Well-used meter and rhyme can create a sense of liveliness and a symmetry and surprise that can produce delight and pleasure for the reader ...
Designed for the general readers of poetry, students and teachers of literature, and aspiring poets, the book has also been widely consulted and cited by linguists and literary historians as a mine of entertaining information about verse technique.
Upon its original publication in 1999, the reviewer for the TLS wrote, “Steele’s elegantly written book, as entertaining and readable as it is erudite and taxonomically precise, successfully explains—in so far as it is possible to do so—how metre, in being predictable, allows for what is wholly unpredictable.” Drawing from the entire range of English-language poetry since Chaucer, which Robert B. Shaw calls "indicative of an impressive breadth of learning and a lively catholicity of taste ...
His friendly but deeply knowledgeable guide to versification marks a quarter century of informing, yes, but most importantly inspiring generations to feel confident and excited about poetic forms.
Some reviewers of Missing Measures praised the book for its depth of historical information and analysis and considered reasonable Steele's concluding argument on behalf of preserving metrical tradition.
Writing in the TLS, Clive Wilmer spoke of Steele as "a considerable scholar ... moving with ease across two-and-a-half millennia of critical thought on the subject of metre" and summarized the book as "wise and engrossing.
Kevin Walzer wrote in 1996 in The Tennessee Quarterly, "His achievement as a poet ... is such that he differs from the mainstream far less today than when he began writing--an important marker of the range and substance of his influence.
"[17] Joseph O. Aimone noted in 2003 in The Dictionary of Literary Biography, "Readers of poetry with a feel for formal verse can already find an interesting and gratifying wealth of invention in Steele's three volumes of poems.