Bloodaxe Poetry Introductions are a new kind of anthology aimed at the general reader as well as the poetry lover. Compiled by Staying Alive editor Neil Astley, each book in the series covers four leading contemporary poets in depth, with substantial selections covering the whole range of each writer's poetry, as well as intriguing and illuminating background material, including profiles, interviews, essays and commentary by the poets.

This Introduction brings together four of Europe's major modern poets whose highly imaginative poetry addresses the human condition in surprisingly different ways. Whether by wit or mischief, insight or intuition, they show our world in a completely new light.

Hans Magnus Enzensberger is Germany's most important poet as well as a provocative cultural essayist. "Like Brecht he combines an intense political engagement with lyric gusto" (George Steiner).

Miroslav Holub (1923-98) was the Czech Republic's foremost modern poet and one of her leading immunologists. His fantastical and witty poems give a scientist's bemused view of human folly and other life on the planet.

Marin Sorescu (1936-96) was a cheerfully melancholic comic genius, highly popular during the Communist era when Romanians could read other meanings in his mischievous parables and playful mockery of the human condition.

Sweden's Tomas Transtrˆmer has been called a 'buzzard poet' because his haunting, visionary poetry shows the world from a height, in a mystic dimension, but brings every detail of the natural world into sharp focus.