Selected Poems

Ford Madox Ford wrote poetry during the half-century of his creative life, publishing thirteen books, the first in 1893 under the pseudonym Fenil Haig, the last in 1936 under his own name. This "Selected Poems" shows his development from early, haunting lyrics-Pound called him "the best lyrist in England" – to the later, conversational style that proved influential on other modernists. It was Ford who taught Pound that "poetry should be as well written as prose". He modernised Pound's style and, through Pound, the styles of Yeats and of Eliot as well.

Ford the poet is best known for his poignancy and irony. If the Rossettis, Swinburne and Morris gave their blessing to his early work, he decisively outgrew their century. This volume displays, as well as early work, his less familiar modes, including bravura satirical pieces never before collected. No wonder poets as different as Basil Bunting and Robert Lowell valued them.