When Hearts Are Trumps

Roses, ballroom memories and unanswered declarations give Tom Hall's love poems their small, sharply observed scenes. When Hearts Are Trumps gathers verses previously printed in periodicals, with sections named for playing cards: Kings & Queens & Bowers, Jacks from Jack, and Jokers. The opening poems move from an imagined portrait in the evening sky to a remembered piano performance, a bride before her mirror and a rose offered from a stairway.

Tenderness shares space with social criticism and comic disappointment. Hall questions marriages arranged around money and rank, while other speakers describe rejection, jealousy or affection expressed through everyday objects. In one recollection, a modestly dressed couple enjoy a ball despite their limited means; elsewhere, a yachting cap becomes the focus of playful admiration. Readers interested in short American love verse can find both earnest feeling and jokes about the manners surrounding courtship.