The Old Gold Woman is about the lives of women, their trials, sacrifices and powerful influences as with the grandmother the boy "followed behind, little, of no consequence, and she gave me light" (The Coal-Oil Lamp); the sensitivity of women and men to universal unity of humankind and nature, "The old man ... whispered to a rose", (The Old Man). "The Korean girl ... I would like to reach out and touch her hand, my sister", (The Stranger in Toronto) and "the old farmer, ... wrapping the sun around his fingers" (Noon).

The poems also have views on the tragedy of war, of Auschwitz, the creative beauty and violent destructiveness of nature, the universality of love, "love has more than one address." (Postal Code). The Poems convey the struggle with life and death for nineteenth century immigrants to Canada from Ireland, and elsewhere, who escaped oppression and poverty to the traps of typhus and cholera, family separation, and death, on Grosse Isle, forty-five kilometres below Quebec City. The many themes and tones contain a pleasing sprinkle of irony and humour.

Other Borealis Press titles by Frank Tierney:

Come Climb A Mountain (1970)
The Birch (1971)
Beams of Love (1972)
Fire-Cloud (1972)
The Way it Stands (1974)
The Lilac Tree (1988)