This is a sequence of poems which progressively probe and answer the question of ""what to make of a diminished thing""-a question borrowed from Frost's great poem ""The Oven Bird"". Dividing the poems into three groups, Mr. Booth begins in a kind of blinding, preian Eden, approaches and crosses ""The Line"" of self-definition; stubbornly incorporates layer upon lazer of complexity into man's experience, arriving finally upon ""Sable Island"", our modern world in microcosm, through which he expresses an affirmation of man's struggling ability to live in faith and creativity. Throughout these poems, the Intensity of rhythm and movement, the use of symbol and metaphor taken alternately from the imaginative world of the creative artist on the one hand and the physical struggles of men on and around the sea on the other, and the skillful, repeated use of shadows and mirrors effect a flowing synthesis of the physical world and that of imagination. Mr. Booth's first volume of poetry, Letter From A Distant Land (our report, 1957, p. 25) was the winner of the Lament Poetry Selection Award. This collection evidences an increased vitality in the poet's expression, and we are even more convinced that Mr. Booth is a poet of great merit.