In this book, Peter Levi, poet, biographer, classicist and critic looks at poets and poetry through the centuries and in many languages. Simply, without technicalities, and with quotation. Levi seeks to instruct and encourage young and old readers of poetry. Based on the lectures given by Levi as holder of the prestigious Chair of Poetry at Oxford University between 1984-9, the book sheds light on a varied selection of poets ranging from Aeschylus, Horace, Shakespeare and Milton to Auden, Larkin, Lear, Pound and James Fenton. Levi communicates real enjoyment of poetry and pride in the poet's art. My approach, he writes, mostly comes from tacking the poems perfectly seriously as human statements, murmuring with pleasure over their technique, and casting a beady glance at history and literary history.