A series featuring various poets selecting and introducing poets of the past. It, by choice of poems and the personal and critical reactions expressed in prefaces, offers insights into the poets' own work as well as providing an introduction to some of the greatest poets of literature.[...]

Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542) was the first modern voice in English poetry. His poetry holds a mirror to the secret, capricious world of Henry VIII's court, and alludes darkly to events which it might be death to describe. In the Tower, twice, Wyatt was betrayed and betrayer. Thought to be the lover of A[...]

Learned divines despised it, sober heads ignored it, but for Henry, the beau ideal of chivalry, poetry made things happen. It affected his wars, his diplomacy and his many marriages. It was at the root of his fatal attraction to Anne Boleyn, the source of her power and it was the means of her destru[...]