In this selection of essays by the poet William Empson (1906-1984), which includes some previously unpublished work, he dwells on subjects as diverse as poetry, fiction, epic, language and rhyme; there are interpretations of Rochester, Wordsworth, Auden, Dylan Thomas, Joyce, Kafka and others; and essays on death and Buddhism. Empson's published works include "Some Versions of Pastoral", "The Structure of Complex Words", "Seven Types of Ambiguity", "Collected Poems", "Using Biography" and "The Royal Beasts".