Book excerpt: These poems reflect the experience of a contemporary American writer and sailor in the West Indies. Richard Dey comes to the islands in a tradition that began with Philip Freneau in 1775; but it is also a tradition of expatriates anywhere, and of literate travel writing. The poems bear witness to the tremendous change in the islands as they moved from neglected colonies to modern mini-states, as well as the changes within the poet as he grew over thirty-five years, from youth through middle age. Almost unknown before Dey sailed there, Bequia, the place of these poems, is now on the literary map.