Poetry. A form of words that seems so elegantly simple in one verse and so cleverly complex in another. Each poet has a particular style, an individual and unique way with words and yet each of us seems to recognise the path and destination of where the verses lead, even if sometimes the full comprehension may be a little beyond us.

Through the centuries every culture has produced verse to symbolize and to describe everything from everyday life, natural wonders, the human condition and even in its more hubristic moments, the crushing triumph of an enemy.

In the volumes of this series, we take a look at poetry through the prism of individual regions of England, or sometimes more quaintly known as 'Albion', or 'Blighty', through the centuries of its gloried history.

England, despite its perception of reserve and under-statement has, in reality, strode the global stage at various time in many things, both good and bad, from Empire to long distance running. Here our focus in on its literature. Famed for its fiction and dramas, it is equally admired for its plethora of gifted poets and the dazzling verse which has added so much to its artistic legacy. These classic poets are wonders of their age and of their art. Genius is written in their names.

In this volume we explore the poets of Oxford. A small city, with its famed university, with an enviable historical grandeur and roll-call of poets who dazzle, humble and inspire us all in ways that only a poet can. Our poets include A E Housman, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Michael Drayton, Percy Bysshe Shelley and a host of other timeless greats.