Fluttertongue 4: adagio for the pressured surround is poetry at its most eloquent. In this long poem, Smith imagistically evokes birds and plants, physical torture, and human relationships, as he delves into the meaning of words and ponders language itself. In this sometimes personal, sometimes documentary, work, Smith references a wide range of subjects, including science, fishing, and other poets and artists—Canadian and international. Themes that run throughout the book include death, food, and Smith’s relationships with his father and his son. This sometimes dark, sometimes humorous, poetic work explores the possibilities and nuances of language, and seeks to find a form of expression outside of free verse and prose, with a meditative pace. Smith’s tendency to dart in and out of ideas and concepts is delicately balanced by echoes and recurrences, and his quest to explore and expand, for himself, the possibilities of poetry.