The Second Round (1965) is Lenrie Peters's only published novel, perhaps because he realized early that his great literary gift was not for fiction but for poetry, a craft at which he has worked steadily. The results of this labor have been four collections of verse beginning with Poems (1964) and continuing through Satellites (1967) and Katchikali (1971) to Selected Poetry (1981). Because Peters lives and works in Banjul, Gambia, at a great distance from the literary centers of Ibadan, Lagos, and Accra, he has not received the attention he deserves; but he has earned critical respect as a thoughtful, intellectual poet. O. R. Dathorne, in African Literature in the Twentieth Century (1975), attributes to him "a wider range of ideas than any other African poet." There was an early attempt by critics and reviewers to deracinate and internationalize Peters's verse, but more recent criticism has tended to emphasize his African qualities and themes...