Smashing the Piano, John Montague's first book of poems since the publication of Collected Poems, suggests the full range of his styles, subjects and concerns. It includes sequences which explore the troubled face of love 'Dark Rooms' and politics 'Civil Wars' as well as translations from Irish and French and lyrics with a lighter, playful touch. Passionately serious poems such as 'A Response to Omagh' and 'A Charm for Europe' display great authority and vision. Others commemorate 'old friends gone to the shades', revisit his native Ulster, and invoke the spirit of W.B. Yeats.