Inner poetry need not cause claustrophobia, as Philip Booth has proven…. [His Before Sleep] projects the alter-ego into the figure of Odysseus, an old man returned to his tall house and faithful wife. The situation allows the poet-wanderer to ruminate on mortality and to ready himself for death…. Just as the Odyssey includes singers in its own narrative, so Booth characterizes poets like Lowell, another Odysseus come up from the sea and greeted by an old worn-out dog. Booth handles his mythopoesis with such skill that the under-thought only emerges gradually and, while remaining meaningful in themselves, particular poems complete the imaginative biography. Out of "nothing" (a word repeated often), the fullness of a life crystallizes, defining its own limits and shining with a light that radiates from within and from all sides…. Booth did not become a poet for nothing and we are the beneficiaries when we listen to the voice raised against the void of not-being, blessing existence, and giving thanks for life…. (pp. 286-87)