But it was also used as a fundraiser for the war effort, as was announced at its release:[2] "The book is issued with the object of earning money wherewith the Manx Society may be enabled to send music, reading matter and comforts to Manx soldiers and sailors on active service or in training, and to that purpose the gross receipts from sales will be devoted."

The poems are predominantly pensive or melancholic in mood, with winter or night as recurring settings or themes for nearly half of the collection.

In contrast to other poetry and writing from the Isle of Man at this time, Gill's collection is striking for its relative absence of overt nationalism or sentimentality.

This was commented on questioningly in a review in Mannin, the journal of The Manx Society, upon the book's release in 1916:[2] "Mr Gill's verses are not ostensibly and ostentatiously 'Manxy.'

[2] A letter to Mannin by J. R. Moore of Ashburton, New Zealand, suggested that the poem might be based on two real-life characters, Chalse y Killey and Thom Delby.