Herbert takes on the major forms of ode and elegy, adding satire, comedy and the ancient Scottish tradition of extended insult, as well as modes still undefined. - Sean O'Brien

His poems are direct and arresting, playful, full of startling imagery, and are hilarious, passionate and erotic as often as they are political - often managing to be all these things at once - Maura Dooley

An engraver in short, sharp slashes that go deep. Andrew Salkey

Hampton is an open-minded writer, with the uncertainties and hesitations of the true seeker. - Stephen Lawrence

America makes prodigious mistakes, America has colossal faults, but one thing cannot be denied: America is always on the move. She may be going to Hell, of course, but at least she isn't standing still. - E. E. Cummings

The blood jet is poetry,/ There is no stopping it. - 'Kindness', Sylvia Plath (written 1st February 1963)

I think so highly of poetry that I've dedicated my life to it. It's the most important thing to me. - Kit Wright

Now if the harvest is over / And the world cold / Give me the bonus of laughter / As I lose hold. - 'A Nip in the Air', John Betjeman

Why are we frightened of the word for love? - 'Language teaching: naming', Jenny Joseph

We were testing the range of the human voice - 'The Shout', Simon Armitage

I've always been concerned to get into [my poetry] the details of daily living which portray - or betray - human strengths and weaknesses and oddities. - Alan Brownjohn