This is the fourth collection of poetry by Chris Wallace-Crabbe, a cosmopolitan poet who once again covers a wide range of subjects in a style that is sometimes "deadly serious," sometimes intensely playful and witty, sometimes quite simple in its celebration of the poet's home country, Australia. In Rungs of Time the clutter of living both enchants and perplexes the poet: a poem that lists a hundred or so things that "are in the saddle and ride mankind" contrasts with philosophical introspection.