Advocates of free verse, especially Wordsworth, thought conventional poetry was too elitist. So they broke away from its conventions in form and language to liberalize it and make it more accessible to the common folk. Thus the reader was made to read poetry in the day-to-day language of the common folk, language with a straightforward meaning. Today, Albert Samah in Weeping and Laughing Verses unwinds the clock by introducing the intricacies of language that characterize conventional poetry in free verse. The reader reads the title of a poem, then the poem itself, and he is lost in the milky way of words. So he reads again, and he feels a gulf between the title and the poem itself. So he reads again, and a word or sentence throws an inkling of meaning. The poem then starts uncurling itself, and at last, the dynamics of free verse manifest themselves in the full meaning of the poem. The poems are presented in ten themes. Each theme is sui generis, yet all the themes converge on man and his astral and physical environments. And whether the poet is advising, scolding, praising, admiring, moralizing, or lamenting human predicament, the tickling glow of powerful imagination encompasses the reader and fills him with awe. Samah's poetry is powerful, intriguing, fulfilling, sublime and penetrating. It is not free verse for free verse sake. It is free verse for a deeper and soul-searching meaning. Prof. Alobwed'Epie Poet, novelist, and critic. University of Yaoundé I