His poems may lack a certain passion and grandeur, but they are graceful examples of vers de société.

But, as might be expected of a first publication, the poem lacks the polish and maturity so typical of the poet's later work.

What the poem lacks is the texture of life, with both its dailiness and oddities.

The early poems lack it.

The poem tells the story of Hero and Leander in medias res and lacks context to the story.

The poem lacks many standard features of the elegy: an invocation, mourners, flowers, and shepherds.

A poem made in less than a nanosecond lacks that significance.

However, others believed that the poem lacked merit and some believed that the subject matter was inappropriate to the time.

For such a critic the poem lacks an appropriately "lacquer finish" and is "marred by the intrusion in the last line of the critical adjective 'stupid'.

He explains to her that, whenever a poem is lacking, he will cast it into the river, and that it will always return to him stronger.