This is a book of poetry that is personal, yet expresses feelings common to everyone. Most of the poems conform to traditional patterns of rhyme and meter, with almost obsessive discipline and rigor, yet they retain an easy conversational tone that belongs firmly to the present. The mood is generally upbeat and lighthearted without being frivolous, the language exhibiting the common touch throughout. For readers who know German, it will be clear that the author has been greatly inspired by German poetry of the eighteenth century, in particular that of Goethe.