She also published an anthology of religious poetry, A Book of Religious Verse, which according to her 1972 reviewer in the New York Times "should be read in conjunction with her provocative lectures on religious poetry printed in her Religion and Literature". The reviewer noted Gardner's attempt to find "viable" religious poetry from the 20th century, but found that religious poems by Edwin Muir and W.H. Auden could not compare "with Herbert, Donne or Milton", and thought the volume "end[ed] with a whimper". Other criticism of her work includes her focus on judgments in analyzing literary works.
