Edmund Blunden (1896-1974) described himself, at the close of his classic memoir Undertones of War, as a 'harmless young shepherd in a soldier's coat.' The characterization points to the most persistent themes in Blunden's work: the English countryside, particularly that of Sussex and Kent, and the First World War. His intimate knowledge of rural life, his delight in its continuity of tradition, the pleasure he took in angling and cricket, the fruits of his time in Japan and Hong Kong-all these are present in the poems, yet beside them marches a less consoling vision of the world, tempered by his experience of war. Images of destruction and desolation rise up with a disquieting power.

This selection, drawing on a wide range of subject matter, emphasizes Blunden's gift for precise, delicate observation and his mastery of diverse poetic form. His first poem appeared in 1914; The Shepherd in 1922 made his reputation. We can now see him as one of the best Georgians, a man deeply acquainted with that tradition of English poetry which includes Clare — of whose work he was a pioneering editor — and Hardy, and advancing it in his work. Yet the picture that emerges from this edition will unsettle a reader's expectations of the pleasantly pastoral, revealing a poet of quiet authority and haunting imagination.

The compiler of this selection, Robyn Marsack, is an editor and translator living in Glasgow. She has also edited a collection of Thomas Bewick's wood-engravings for the Fyfield series, and Blunden's Fall in Ghosts: Selected War Prose.