WEEP BEFORE GOD

This is the first group of poems from Mr. Wain since A Word Carved on a Sill in 1956. One can scarcely doubt the sincerity of the thoughts, emotions, and ideas in these poems, nor of the poet himself, especially when he makes an impassioned plea for the return of poetry in our time in the longest and best of the poems in this collection. The shorter lyrics are not very successful -- perhaps the overly schematic form and structure are too confining - and they seem to result in rather trite truisms or parables. More forceful and articulate are the longer, narrative poems - ""On the Death of a Murderer"", ""A Boisterous Poem About Poetry"", and ""A Song About Major Eatherly"". Even in these more successful poems, it is Wain's strident criticism of modern man and his daily disillusionments and self-delusions that come off, whereas the attempts to convey compassion, understanding, and mature compromise are sapped by inadequate or unoriginal vocabulary and syntax. In spite of admirable intentions, Mr. Wain is still more effective in prose.