20 DECEMBER 1946, Page 26

*Shorter Notices Consider the Years. Poems by Virginia Graham. (Cape.

5s.) ONE would naturally expect good, light verse from the daughter of the late Harry Graham, author of Ruthless Rhymes, and one is not disappointed. The verses in Consider the Years are extremely accom- plished, the lines very deftly turned and the dénouements particu- larly well handled. Most of the pieces are witty and amusing enough, and it is only when, for a few brief uncomfortable moments, Miss Graham flirts with the more serious Muse that one becomes uneasy, wondering if the emotion rings quite true, if the tone is not perhaps a trifle too patronising. The poems in this book mostly appeared in Punch over the initials V. G. during the war, and they form, read in sequence, a light Miniveresque commentary on the milder side of war-time life.