Each poem in this lively collection affirms the role of the poet as unrivalled observer of life. Signs are there in the poems of love and the natural world, such as To a Young Girl and Feline. The cyclic progression of history is highlighted in Dunwich, while the poems on dementia and death (Voices, Dead Flowers), prefigure the positive beliefs crystallized in The Path. George Wicker counts among his influences Ted Hughes and Zbigniew Herbert. His wide reading and scientific education enables a vision of the world as potentially chaotic (Certain Artists) yet ultimately, in Speckled Universe, of incredible order.