["By Avon River"] has a charm and delicacy not often found among the tougher ironies of our modern poets and critics. It is in two parts: the first a series of lyrics evoked by the contemplation of Shakespeare's "Tempest" and of certain aspects of his world and art and their sources in earlier currents of thought. These poems have a clear, yet slightly muted, tone, pleasing though occasionally slightly monotonous to the ear; they show a restrained, classical skill.

The second part, which occupies the bulk of the book, is a prose essay on Elizabethan poets, in which quotation of their lyrics falls naturally. The essay works up to a discussion of Shakespeare himself. H. D. thinks of him sitting on that last convivial evening with Drayton and Ben Jonson … and follows his imagined reminiscences on this occasion to present aspects of his life and thought.

It is...