For this anthology P. J. Kavanagh and James Michie have chosen those short poems (of less than fourteen lines) which they consider to be the best in the English language, from medieval times to the present day. The sonnet is excluded; and epigrams and epitaphs, of which adequate anthologies exist, have been avoided. The result is a collection of more than 650 poems which draws attention to the short works of great poets, wich are sometimes overlooked, whilst giving extended room to the established masters of the short poem. The anthology ranges from the short poems of Chaucer, Skelton, Sidney, Shakespeare, Milton, and Bunyan to those of Oscar Wilde, Edith Sitwell, Stevie Smith, Philip Larkin, and Ted Hughes, by way of Pope, William Cowper, Blake, Emily Bronte, and Emily Dickinson, and demonstrates the gradual changes in style, subject-matter, and tone from one generation of poets to the next. This book is intended for general readers who enjoy literature, poetry and Oxford Books of. Students (GCSE, A-level, undergraduate) of literature.