The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary British & Irish Poetry

“Good criticism explores, understands, and illuminates far more than it judges”, begins the final sentence in this substantial Handbook. This sentiment captures what is excellent about this collection of essays on contemporary poetry commissioned for this volume. Edited by poet and academic Peter Robinson, the scope of this work, as announced by its title, is ambitious. Robinson observes in his Introduction; “[…] if it’s contemporary it can’t be canonical”, a caution to the reader and perhaps the poets included within, to approach this Handbook in its true context, which is to say it is a staging post rather than a...