Beginning Dove Legend, the newest collection by award-winning Toronto poet Richard Outram, is a little like entering a foreign language. Outram’s conventional poetic forms and strict rhymes, combined with his use of archaic language, will sound rather unusual to the modern ear, and for the first several pages, readers may spend as much time perusing the dictionary as the poetry.

Take the opening lines of “Consolation of the Savant”: “This spike-mace cased, treasure burnished,/marron conker of ratiocination is/an adamant nut to crack.” Having penetrated the apparent fog of his language, the reader will discover that Outram is actually a very ingenious poet. In the lines quoted above, for example, Outram buries two common clichés amidst his lexical tangles: the “chestnut” – “marron conker of ratiocination” – used in the sense of anecdote or stale joke, combined with the expression “adamant (tough) nut to crack.” It is this penchant for clever word play that makes Dove Legend such an enjoyable, albeit challenging, read.

In his best poems Outram marries his masterful command of language and rhyme with the skill of comedic delivery. Not all of Outram’s poems are humorous, though. As an aficionado of philosophy and literature, Outram also dips his pen into deeper wells, drawing up themes of love, existence, the nature of God and happiness, as well as subjects like Canadian landscapes, animals, and celebrities. However, many of his more serious poems, particularly the descriptive and religious poems, seem a little flat and uninspired after the sparkling language of the light-hearted verse. His ubiquitous use of rhyme throughout the collection also becomes a little tiresome after more than 150 pages.

But readers do not have to enjoy every poem to enjoy Dove Legend. There is enough variety in this collection to suit many tastes, and to keep even the most learned readers busy with their dictionaries for a long time.