In "The Book of Stones" Adam's Schwartzman explores what it means to live in the new South Africa, to be part of historical processes while sustaining an individual life. The poet returned home in 1999 to live and work in the country he had mythologi...

These poems are the fruit of estrangement, in particular from origins. They draw on James Sutherland Smith's experiences of life in the Middle East and Middle Europe; what is most strange, they tell us, is not to be found in exotic locales, but close...

Introduction by Eavan Boland: "There are poets who make sense in their poems", writes Eavan Boland in her introduction to this selection. "And then there are poets who also make sense of the literature they belong to, and continue to shed light on it...

In the food chain, language is the harrier. How it craves young breath. Yn y gadwyn fwyd iaith ydyw'r boda ac mae'n rhaid cael cnawd ac anadlu ifanc os yw'r heliwr am fyw. from Gwyneth Lewis, "Ewyllys yr Iaith" / "The Language's Will and Testament"...

The "Annotated Shakespeare" series allows readers to fully understand and enjoy the rich plays of the world's greatest dramatist. One of the most frequently read and performed of all stage works, Shakespeare's "Hamlet" is unsurpassed in its complexit...

"SeaManShip" is an extraordinary and challenging poem. The "Sea" of the title is a symbol of the natural world, "Man" represents human feelings and intellect, and "Ship" signifies the artificial or man-created. By turns rhapsodic and incantatory, th...

Matthew Welton makes tunes out of words. Using the sounds and structures of language, he finds new understandings of what poetic form can do. He refuses to be constrained by convention. The title poem borrows its structure from Roget's Thesaurus to s...

Djuna Barnes (1892-1982) once described herself as the most famous unknown writer, and although her novel, Nightwood is celebrated, her poetry has been a well-kept secret until now. This selection, the only one currently available, contains work writ...

Re-inventing Scottish poetry in the twentieth century, Hugh MacDiarmid's war cry was: "Not Burns – Dunbar!" With it, he celebrated William Dunbar (1460?-1520?) as "in many ways the most modern, as he is the most varied, of Scottish poets". His verve,...

"The Border Ballads" are rooted in the wild and beautiful lands that lie between England and Scotland, a traditionally lawless area whose inhabitants owed allegiance first to kin and laird, and only then to the authorities in London or Edinburgh. Rec...