FOR THE BACK OF A LIKENESS. Finch, Robert. Erin (Ont.), Porcupine's Quill, c1986. 76pp, paper, $7.95, ISBN 0-88984-089-X. Grades 12 and up Reviewed by Pat Bolger Volume 15 Number 2 1987 March Winner of the Governor General's Award for Poetry in 1946, Robert Finch is now a Senior Fellow at Massey College in Toronto, and this collection, erudite, formal, and witty, reflects the scholar's life. Half of the sixty poems here are traditional sonnets, a form to which Finch brings both strength and grace, especially in "Not by Mistake" and "A Postcard (for A.J.)." The religious poems in the final section grapple with theological questions such as free will, and Finch, like Donne and Herbert, cuts to the very bone of mystery: "One thing he gave us we can give. Our will ./To him, or not to him. This is ours still." Finch's "Twelve Epigrammes" are properly brief and witty, like the airy "Force of Habit": My pillow once could soar so high, Winging its way through skies unknown, That now it's down, it still can fly Me to those skies where none has flown. This handsomely presented collection will appeal primarily to adults, but teachers of senior English would also find it an excellent source of class material, from beginning ("The Youthful Alexander"), to end (the gorgeous "Day's Phoenix"). Pat Bolger, Renfrew C.I., Renfrew, Ont.