Condemn'd to hope's delusive mine, as on we toil from day to day, by sudden blasts, or slow decline, our social comforts drop away. - Samuel Johnson 'On the death of Dr Robert Levet'

With walking sick, with curtseys lame, and frighted by the scolding dame, poor Mira once again is seen within the bounds of Goslin-Green. - Mary Leapor 'The Visit'

'Inventive, academically aware, fearless and hugely enjoyable' -Nick Laird

The mountaineer climbs the mountain because it's there; the poet writes poetry so that it should continue to be there.

Dense yet taut poems, grounded in an everyday enriched by an intelligent, idiosyncratic awareness -- Carrie Etter

From harmony, from heavenly harmony, this universal frame began. - John Dryden 'A Song For St Cecilia's Day'

That in humour the lyrical may flourish.

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

Man differs more from man than man from beast.

And die of nothing but a rage to live

Resonant and lyrical, linguistically precise and emotionally evasive, often at the same time - The Guardian

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