Memorable, witty, bawdy, profound—the short poem observes no limits except those of length. They can range from subjects as diverse as a child's first words, a woman's feet, or human destiny. The verses within this collection vary greatly in theme, style, and tone, but in each case, brevity reveals the poets at their best, both as individual artists and as exemplars of their times.
The short poem is often overlooked in verse collections, where poets tend to be represented by their longer, more sustained work. Defining "short" as any poem of under fourteen lines, P. J. Kavanagh and James Michie have chosen those poems, which they consider to be the best in the English language, from medieval times to the present day. Their selection extends from Chaucer to Philip Larkin, from Shakespeare to Emily Bronte, from Blake to Edith Sitwell, and from Yeats to Emily Dickinson, demonstrating the gradual changes in style, subject-matter, and tone from one generation of poets to the next.