ECHOES OF THE SEA

A conservative collection of poems about the sea and its inhabitants, actual and imagined. Grouped according to subject, they focus on such aspects as fish, sea serpents, birds, sunken cities, shells, mermaids, and seaweed and other plant life. As in Four Seasons, Five Senses (1974), Parker leans heavily on traditional British sources--five entries from de la Mare and Tennyson, three each from Noyes, Milton, Shakespeare, and Masefield, and several from the Romantics. More recent contributors include May Swenson, comparing the waves to ""white-faced cattle. . . with weary knees,"" and Richard Eberhart, staring into a sea-hawk's eye, ""An eye of fire, an eye of icy crystal, A threat of ancient purity,/ . . . An agate-well of purpose."" Altogether it's a varied collection but too stodgy to make waves.