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'...when a person publishes poetry, the chances are about a thousand to one that his book will die within a week of its birth, and be forgotten a week after... undeterred by such discouraging facts, Mr Heney, who belongs to the ranks of colonial literature, has published the volume of poems whose title stands at the head of this notice. But we doubt if the book is destined to enjoy a longer career than the numerous works to which allusion has been made. What must necessarily prove fatal to Mr Heney's hope of success is that his compositions are not poetry; they are only ordinary prose arranged in accordance with the mechanical rules which are usually applied to poetry...'
