Mr. Ransom was born in 1888 in Tennessee, the son of a minister. He founded and edited the Kenyon Review and taught for twenty years at Kenyon College. He has won several poetry awards. This book is a collection of earlier published poems, with two new compared revisions, and a long footnote explication. Ransom, once one of the ""New Poets"", is a rather poignant link between older and newer poetry. His tight, rhymed poetic form and some of his themes often sound limited and old-fashioned, to modern ears; but at best his personal energies transform a rich store of Biblical and poetic ideas, and transcend his forms to create a more varied and sometimes rhetorical, sometimes subtle poetry than many modern poets are equipped to write. His range, his skillful precision of phrase and overtone, a crotchety individuality and irony, and a joy in the use of words and ideas all make him a pleasure to read and unravel. The revisions are not wholly successful but the footnote has great charm and wisdom. He was probably a delightful teacher (he is now retired) and his poetry has freshness, vigor and much to say.