The front-cover of Cullen's fine volume features a facsimile of Albrecht Durer's 1504 depiction of Adam and Eve. It's appropriate symbolism because the buoyant sweep revealing the grown up, elemental love between a man and a woman is a feature . . .certainly with the sonnets 'Bluebeard' or 'Adam & Eve' quintets . . . that's possessed of the refinement to engage wise, ancient lovers.

The approachably experimental thrust of some creations fizz eclectically across an embrace of the mystical, the ties-that-bind, toward life synthesised through the prism of taboo.

The poet insists that although that which was forbidden is no longer unattainable, it must be paid for at the cost of innocence or at the loss of being cosseted within, whether by 'God' or by the herd's embrace.

Cullen's collection is at once sharply observational and brazenly fecund and is a delightfully provocative and fabulous debut that stands well.