Afrequent criticism of Mr. Coffin's poetry is that it is too narrow in scope. His treatment of Maine people, Maine customs, landscapes, and feelings, is acknowledged to be of a particularly perceptive and persuasive type, but beyond Maine and a few scattered corners of New England, Mr. Coffin's ability as a poet does not exist. It is said that he is a "regionalist," and that his poems can be understood in their full implications only by the elect versed in the ways of those exceptional anthropoids who carry on their own quaint, inbred existence north of Portland.

In the preface to his "Collected Poems," Mr. Coffin attempts to state his position in the field of poetic endeavor, by way of answering the assertion that he is a provincialist whose colloquialisms are mere gibberish to outsiders. He admits that his primary subject material consists of Maine people, and that the inspiration for his work lies within the area of a particular region. But this does not mean that his poetry is significant with regard to only State-of-Mainers. From the everyday existences, the "Monday and Tuesday" lives, of these people, Coffin declares that he can create a mosaic of universal human traits.

The moments of gloom and happiness of any group of people proceed from the same fundamental roots as the joys and sorrows of man as a universal form. Coffin's idea is that the distinctive characteristics of a single human being, such as a Maine fisherman, are the qualities which lend a positive tone to poetic translations of human nature. One cannot write convincingly of a universal type of human being, for even if it existed, it would lack the compelling reality which inspires poetry. The force and enthusiasm behind a poem is one factor which determines its ability to convey an impression, and it is rare that such force is generated entirely from the imagination. By discarding vague observations on humanity in favor of the examination of concrete human realities, Coffin has not damaged his position as a universalist.

"Every poet, I think, ought to be something of a local poet," Coffin says, and thus he expresses the conviction that knowledge of one's subject, contact with it through personal experience, is the main guarantee of poetic inspiration. And as a local poet, he can assume, in his own words, that he is a "representative of the people." There is more than merely a simple exposition of peculiar traits indigenous to Maine in his poems. He who would classify Coffin as a provincialist, limited in scope to the portrayal of a single group of individuals, might as well judge the significance of a sculptor's work by the quality of clay be uses.