xi 179 pages, indexed. The maroon cloth has a lightly rubbed patch at the edge of the front board and a much smaller one at the back; there is a beautiful gift inscription on the front end cover as well as a very tired looking book plate. The body of the book is clean, unmarked and solid, possibly never read. " One of the best-known Australian poets outside his own country, A. D. Hope did not publish his first book of poetry until he was nearly 50....His work reveals an obsession with the individual's capacity to rise above the mundane. It is "the poet's trade," Hope wrote in one of his poems, to remake and reshape world myths to help modern humankind validate its existence rather than sink into cynicism." (web)