Dr VVB Rama Rao is our literary detective who snoops around and smells poetry in obscure places. The present book – Poets Notable and New: 2017 – is the best evidence of the same. Who could think of a biologist composing poetry in English which in our land has so far been the preserve of departments of English? The lab-bound Anand Kumar drags us to the dreary world of opium eaters. U Atreya Sarma (Chief Editor, Muse India) air-lifts the reader to spiritual heights with his art of dabbling with words. K Venugopala Rao bemoans the plight of woman in general and waits for a redeemer like Gandhi. These three New Poets are placed side by side of the three Notables – PCK Prem, DC Chambial, and T Vasudeva Reddy. The liberal critic in Rao has a word of praise for each one. In his critical appreciation he demonstrates that Prem has no prem for a pervert. In the portrait of Monto (short for Monster) he avers what damage higher education allied with higher administrative position can do to the general pattern of life and culture. Chambial adores every face of Nature; he abhors only the public figures that have fallen from higher humanistic ideals. T Vasudeva Reddy offers us the authentic grief-ridden picture of Indian villages.