Smith's musings about words and how they can be manipulated on a page is a fusion of history, theory, and poetry. His insights, which were probably fresh when he first published this book in 1989, are now very commonplace. I found the poetry to be simplistic and uninspired. His other books are treasures in my home library, but this one is a disappointment. I give it three stars because I enjoyed the in-book project on page 154.