THE ANIMALS IN THAT COUNTRY

These generally brief poems peregrinate wittily—an impression of discoveries as neat and exquisite as the calligraphy of fox footprints in the snow. Miss Atwood exploits the wily feminine in a cleancut delicacy of line and verse. In her title poem, the innocent declaration "In that country the animals have the faces of people" is followed by a tapestry of gleaming images: "the ceremonial cat possessing the streets" or, extending the line and fancy, "the bull, embroidered/ with blood and given/ an elegant death, trumpets, his name stamped on him, heraldic brand." The poems, on a variety of miniatured subjects, are both oblique in intent and attractively crystalline in expression.