“Ibn Gabirol’s poetry is enormously influential, laying the groundwork for generations of Hebrew poets who follow him–rocky and harsh, full of original imagery and barbed wit, and yet no one surpassed him for the limpid beauty of his devotional verse.” — Jewish Book Council
“This detailed depiction of a winter scene is among the treasures in Raymond P. Scheindlin’s new book of flowing English translations of secular and sacred poems by Solomon Ibn Gabirol…” — Haaretz
“Beautiful locutions about love, longing, and desire.” –Choice
“[Solomon Ibn Gabirol] is considered one of the fathers of Hebrew poetry” –Hebrew Studies
“Ibn Gabirol sets the archetype for spiritual turbulence in all subsequent Jewish poetry. …A bitter personality and yet a sublime visionary.” — Harold Bloom
“[Solomon Ibn Gabirol’s] poetry was written in a style that did not conform to the esthetics of his age but that today is part of the way we live.” — Amos Lassen
“Such unpredictable, uniquely structured poems, intent on self-expression, were written… most strikingly by Solomon Ibn Gabirol. His personal poems reveal a divided spirit trying in vain to achieve wisdom and peace of mind, a man isolated from society, hated and feared by people who were unable to comprehend his philosophy…The speaker in these poems… is torn between hate, fear, and pride, but miraculously triumphs over himself… His imagery is full of surprises… Ibn Gabirol added a new dimension – searching introspection – to Hebrew poetry.” — Dan Pagis, Hebrew Poetry of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
“Being medieval, these poems inevitably demonstrate the scope of religious language in their explorations of nature, drink, love, sex, boasting, friendship and loneliness. They are by turns, witty, satirical, elegiac–and always allusive.” –Jane Liddell-King, Jewish Chronicle
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