At well over 300 pages, this book represents something unusual - not a mere poetry anthology, of which there are plenty available already, but an exposition of the different genres of poetry, a study of various poetic forms and metres, their history and function and contemporary relevance, with appropriate examples past and present. Inevitably, it is quite strongly American-orientated in several areas, and some of the figures and reputations will be relatively unfamiliar to Irish readers; but this is also a gain, since it widens our appreciation of 20th-century verse. The range is wide and Messrs Strand and Boland sweep with a big net, bringing in poets as various as Dryden and Francis Ledwidge, Shelley and Ted Hughes, Ben Jonson and Adrienne Rich. The primary target, presumably, is university students and school-leavers, but its reader appeal deserves to be much wider.