Cyrillona, or Qurillona, was a Syriac poet of the late fourth century. The small corpus of his work is preserved in a single sixth-century manuscript, British Library, ms Add. 14591. Even in this manuscript the author's name appears only twice and is not unmistakably spelled. The name and the poetry are both unknown in later Syriac tradition. Since their publication in the nineteenth century by Gustav Bickell, the five poems have been well studied, anthologised in chrestomathies and translated, but Carl Griffin's work brings them into English for the first time with a full commentary. This work consists of two volumes, an edition and translation (The works of Cyrillona, Piscataway, NJ 2016) and the companion volume that is the subject of this review. The reader who wants a brief introduction to the text and its critical problems (date, integrity of the corpus, etc.) and a clean and reliable translation will be well enough served by the edition. The companion volume is a thorough study of the poems line by line. Attention is also paid to such matters as the genre of the poems – memre, madrashe, sogyata as they are variously titled, although not fitting the later definitions of any of these types of poetry; to their place in the liturgy, which for three of the five poems must be Maundy Thursday, and for one (with the non-biblical theme of ‘scourges’: locusts, the Huns, drought and an earthquake) All Saints’ Day; and to the author's text of the Gospels, which, although he does not work by explicit quotation, is clearly the Old Syriac and Diatessaron. Most of the discussion, however, which is abundantly – sometimes, in the manner of PhD theses, wearisomely – documented, analyses the author's imagery, its biblical background, its parallels in other sources and the manner of its assimilation into the poetry. It is as well to have the edition by one's side when reading this, lest the impression is given that the text is heavy and complex. The poems themselves, although they certainly share the intricate thought-world of Ephrem, are, compared to his often difficult madrashe, simpler in style and they make for easier reading. This reading is anyhow facilitated by Griffin's work, which is confident and authoritative, and serves this Syriac author well.