An interesting observation by Kurth Sprague: "If this book has a distinctly Irish flavor, it is scarcely surprising, for thirty of these fifty-seven poems were written while White was in Ireland during the years 1939-1945, twenty-six of them composed in the fall of 1939, eleven during twelve days in September of that year. " White, temporarily in funds from the success of "Sword in the Stone,: had taken Sheskin Lodge in County Mayo for that month.."