(Edited from the book jacket cover)

     This volume of verse is by the same Steve Allen. The same Steve Allen, that is, who holds court on Tonight, who impersonated the great clarinetist in The Benny Goodman Story, who authored Bop Fables and The Funny Men, and who last fall regaled his many fans and made some new ones with a book of short stores entitled Fourteen for Tonight.
    There are far more than fourteen poems in WRY ON THE ROCKS, and they are just as varied in character as the poet is diverse in talent.  How can one define a poet  who writes with equal ease and enthusiasm of "chocolate mashed potatoes"; on the dangers of poetry; about a bad Samaritan; and who combines "Mencken, Lincoln and God"?  And how can one define a book of poetry that is sophisticated and sarcastic;  humorous and double-edged; tender and funny at the same time?
    Here is a book of verse that has something for everyone.  It has short poems for lovers of short poems, long poems for lovers of long poems, and love poems for lovers.  It has frankly autobiographical poems, poems that are worldly-wise and poems that are pointedly pointless.  Some of these poems will launch a smile and some will precipitate an uproar; they will be recited at proper teas and improper cocktail parties.  No "epic" verse here, but plenty of food for thought and laughter, all by Steve Allen and all very au courant.