Poetry of life in literature and through literature, and the vast territory in between - as vast as human life itself - where they interact and influence each other, is the nerve of human existence. Whether we are aware of it or not, we are profoundly dissatisfied with the stark reality of life's swift progress onward, and the enigmatic and irretrievable meaning of the past. And so we dramatise our existence, probing deeply for a lyrical and heartfelt yet universally valid sense of our experience. It is in great works of literature that we seek those hidden springs that so move us. It is in honour of this search that this collection focuses on the creative imagination at work in literature and aesthetics.

Poetry and Voice, with a foreword by Helen Dunmore, is a book of essays which fuses critical and creative treatments of poetic voice. Some contributors focus on critical explorations of voice in work by poets such as John Ashbery, Simon Armitage, Eavan Boland, Carol Ann Duffy, Arun Kolatkar, Don McKay and Dragica Rajčić, and on the musical voices of the lyric tradition and of poetry itself. Vicki Feaver, Jane Griffiths, Philip Gross, Waqas Khwaja, Lesley Saunders and David Swann reflect on their own poetic processes of composition, and the development of the voices of childhood, old age, migration, landscape, bilinguality, and imprisonment. Laurel Cohen-Pfister and Tatjana Bijelić examine the nature of poetic voice in exile, the need for fresh voices after war and new spaces in which poetic voices can be heard. In this international collection, the contributors give rare and generous insights into inner poetic processes and external effects. They engage with artistic debates about developing, losing and appropriating voice in poetry and approach the question of what is ‘finding a voice’ in poetry from multiple angles. The book will interest literary critics, poets, lecturers, and undergraduate and postgraduate students of literature, poetry and creative writing.