A frail, dead, new-born lamb, ghostly and pitiful and white a blot upon the night, the moon's dropped child! - Charlotte Mew, 'Fame'

For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry. For he is the servant of the Living God, duly and daily serving him. - Christopher Smart 'My cat Jeoffrey'

Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee, warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee. - Robert Burns 'Song: ae fond kiss and then we sever'

Oh! let each mental feature proclaim the labour of the mind, and leave your charms to NATURE. - Mary Robinson, 'Female Fashions For 1799'

With mast, and helm, and pennon fair, that well had borne their part - but the noblest thing which perish'd there, was that young faithful heart. - Felicia Hemans 'Casabianca'

And who has greater sense, but greater sorrow shares? - Anne Finch, 'The hog, the sheep and the goat, carrying to a fair'

What on Earth deserves our trust? Youth and Beauty both are dust. - Katherine Philips 'Epitaph'

Adventurous, compelling and utterly original - The Times

His poetry is what all poetry should be, the surprising and beautiful organisation of things that life has disorganised. John Fuller

Birthcries repeatedly / new, self pull out self, self / issuing that self home - Vahni Capildeo, 'On Not Writing as a West Indian Woman'

Woman! too long degraded, scorned, opprest; / O born to rule in partial Law's despite, / Resume thy native empire o'er the breast! Anna Laetitia Barbauld, 'The Rights of Women'

'No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.' Lady Mary Wortley Montagu