In this far-reaching collection Maurice Harmon extends the examination of modern Irish life that he began twenty years ago. the mischievous boy exposes the conditions of life in Ireland through various manifestations - in James Joyce, Thomas Kinsella, and William Carleton. The transformed nature of Irish society is projected in the satirical 'A Vision of Ireland in the Twenty-first Century'In a style of luminous simplicity Maurice Harmon gives us elegies, love poems and humorous asides, delicate evocations of love and loss, considerations of misunderstanding between fathers and sons, a discussion of the attraction between men and women against the stark background of wife-murder, and portrait poems of greedy politicians. Childhood innocence and zest for living are celebrated in the title poem that serves as a foil for the discoveries of pain, deceit, and uncertainty in later experience. In the concluding section, he considers human experience in Egypt, the Middle East, America and Japan. "His work displays his knowledge of literature and potry well, making for a fine and exciting adventure in verse." Midwest Book Review