"Desperately and delightfully unfashionable" was how reviewer Richmond Lattimore characterized Timothy Steele's Uncertainties and Rest when it first appeared in 1979. Sapphics against Anger and Other Poems appeared in 1986 and solidified and extended Steele's reputation as, in the words of Publishers Weekly, "one of the finest contemporary poets to write in meter and traditional forms."

Sapphics and Uncertainties: Poems 1970–1986 draws together these two books into a single volume. This collection offers the most substantial gathering yet from a body of work widely praised for its tonal and thematic range and for its wit and warmth of feeling.