The twelve essays contained in this volume were delivered at Oxford between 1995 and 1999 during James Fenton’s tenure there as Oxford Professor of Poetry. They are, each of them, masterly engagements with the lives and loves of poets, and most especially with their poetry. Fenton writes with assurance and sympathy. He tends towards the encroachment of biographical details into his criticism—in almost every case, details of the poet’s life under scrutiny, which would not have been generally or publicly available during the poet’s life, inform and adjust the interpretation of the poetry. That is a debatable strategy, but Fenton acknowledges its risks, most notably in the final essay. It does, however, make for highly readable accounts and a personable critical style.

In some ways, Fenton is better dealing with male poets. He writes with conviction and respect on Marianne Moore, Elizabeth Bishop, and Sylvia Plath. But he truly shines when discussing Wilfrid Owen, Seamus Heaney, D.H. Lawrence, and W.H. Auden, on whom there are three essays. Perhaps I should have placed Philip Larkin at the front of that list, but unusually here, Fenton’s scholarship and incisive observation diminishes rather than burnishes Larkin’s reputation. It was ever thus—poets move up or down in standing as critics disabuse us of our blinders with respect to them.

Fine criticism, I think, typically draws us back to the texts it explores with renewed enthusiasm. That is surely the case here. This is criticism that gently nudges us in certain directions and then, for the most part, seeks to absent the field. It returns us to the poems and lets their strengths act upon us. A fine collection of essays, highly recommended. ( )

These essays are cogently argued and thought-provoking. One of Fenton's great strengths that he is a lot more than a poet. He therefore has much to drawn on as he formulates his thoughts on the place of poetry in the pantheon of communication and art. The essays were originally lectures given by Fenton when he held the more or less honorary post of professor of poetry at Oxford. ( )