David Constantine is a poet of unusual geographical, cultural, and imaginative range: in his poems he moves easily through time and space, embraces myths and legends, incorporates fragments of history and of literature. His work conveys a strong sense of restless voyaging and conversely relatively little sense of roots or a home base.

Born in Salford, Lancashire, in 1944, Constantine read modern languages at Oxford, lectured in German at Durham University for eleven years, and in 1981 returned to Oxford, where he is now fellow in German at Queen's College. He is married, with two children.

As Roger Garfitt pointed out in a Times Literary Supplement review of Constantine's first book, it may be significant that his undergraduate career coincided with Robert Graves's tenure as Oxford Professor of Poetry: they share "that version of pastoral which combines erudition and eroticism with a wise humour." While writing his doctoral thesis on...