Matthew Mead began publishing his poetry in the 1960s. By then he had,
as Peter Riley noted, 'located a sense of poetry for which he drew
widely from Anglo-American writing, avoiding any programmes of
allegiance.' Over the years he has published five collections of poetry.
As he once wrote, 'I have tried not to avoid what has happened in poetry
and psycho-politics during this [20th] century.'
In his essay which is appended to this collection, Dick Davis analyses
the special and uncommon qualities of Mead's poetry, concluding 'His
tone is unmistakable, and once encountered it is never forgotten.'