Introduction

Poetry is the national art of Britain and Ireland. Our great poets, from
Shakespeare to Burns to Yeats, from Milton to Tennyson, have always
mirrored our public identities and our private souls.
                                                                                          Carol Ann Duffy

'Absence, hear thou my protestation'

Absence, hear thou my protestation
Against thy strength,
Distance and length:
Do what thou canst for alteration
For hearts of truest mettle
Absence doth join, and time doth settle.
                              John Hoskins, page 3