Baxter's poetry is thought-provoking and philosophical but is also often very personal. The personal nature of his poems involves speaking about his past self, memories and religious experiences. In At Days Bay, Baxter reflects about how much he has changed since adolescence. Previously he had been a "sad boy," "thoughts crusted with ice on the treadmills of self-love." However, his older self is much more tranquil and contemplative. In Wild Bees, Baxter writes about an old memory, in which he smoked out a bees nest with some friends. The detail of this poem is incredible, and could seemingly only be written by someone who had experienced it themselves. In Autumn Testament, Baxter explores his personal relationship with religion. He feels like he is repenting as he is walking down the hill bare-footed, but later feels "tricked" by religion. These conflicting feelings about religion are explored in many Baxter poems, including the Jerusalem Sonnets.
Baxter's poems are also philosophical in parts. In At Days Bay, Baxter writes about the indifference of nature in human problems, describing the waves in the following passage:
"How slow untroubled by any
grouch of mine or yours, Father
Ocean tumbles in the bay
alike with solitary"
Here, we see that the ocean is carrying on as usual, without a concern for what is happening in the human world. By calling the ocean "father" there is also a religious suggestion, and Baxter may be implying that God often feels indifferent to human suffering.
In East Coast Journey, Baxter reflects philosophically about old age and the inevitability of getting older. When visiting a pub he sees an old man drinking, and is later "struck" with this image later when he is "lying awake in the veranda bedroom." The image of the old man makes him think about old age, and he concludes that "as a man grows older he does not want beer, bread of the prancing flesh, but the arms of the eater of life."
