Averse to Beasts

Bantock's (Griffin & Sabine) light verse is enhanced by his color illustrations in this small, fetching book. As an example, look at his painting of a befanged, richly chestnut-colored dog, muzzle soft and thick with wrinkles; the accompanying poem is ``Dog Tired,'' seven lines of sly complaint from a narrator who's being bitten by the dog in question. ``The Warrior's Way,'' about a ``highly toxic Warrior fly'' and the fly's offing by a human with a swatter, accompanies the image of a purple-and-black-striped creature who has been split in half and surrounded by minuscule blood spatters. The color's rewarding; so is Bantock's graphic precision in words and pictures. One of the most deft poems is ``Unthinking Drinking,'' about a small fish aswim in a glass of whiskey who survives a 40-day drunk only to burst from the glass and perish. (Nov.)