The most compelling, original, charismatic and poetic guide to poetry that I can remember. A handbook written from the heart by one of the true modern masters of the craft.

Simon Armitage

It really is a tremendously good book, and should be read by anyone who writes poetry and anyone who's interested in how and why poetry is written... this is the best book about poetry I've ever read.

Adam Newey, Guardian

Glyn Maxwell's "On Poetry," on the execution and philosophy of the art, is probably going to be a modern classic.

Spectator

There are a handful of books about writing that I count among my indispensible texts: by Guy Davenport, Randall Jarrell, Durs Grunbein, Keats, Pound, Brodsky, Virginia Woolf, Fanny Burney, Eliot. I knew on about page two that this book was one of them.

Katy Evans-Bush, Poetry Review

A cogent, engaging, elegantly structured, and, at times, inspiring account and defence of the poet's art and calling.

Times Literary Review