The Curfew tolls the knell of parting day, the lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea - Thomas Gray, 'Elegy written in a county church yard'

Slowly and sadly we laid him down, from the field of his fame fresh and gory; we carved not a line, and we raised not a stone - but left him alone with his glory. - Charles Wolfe, 'The Burial of Sir John Moore After Corunna'

My prime of youth is but a frost of cares. - Chidiock Tichborne 'Tichborne's Elegy'

Drink to me only with thine eyes, and I will pledge with mine. - Ben Jonson 'Song To Celia'

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

Poems of serious play, relentlessly experimental but grounded in quotidian specifics, characterized by a consummate strangeness and an oddball ferocity ? David Wojahn

'Who ever loved that loved not at first sight' Christopher Marlowe, 'Hero and Leander'

Trenches of night between us ... - 'War History', Sam Hunt

The simple lack / Of her is more to me / Than others' presence. Edward Thomas, 'The Unknown'

Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit / Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste / Brought death into the world, and all our woe. 'Paradise Lost'

Who wants to know / a story's end, or where a road will go? - Sheenagh Pugh, 'What If This Road'

Alice Oswald throws the windows of the imagination open; she places a fingertip on the pulse of tradition, and proves it is still very much alive - The Times