The Covenant contains Dick Davis's poems written since 1979. It is his third collection, following In the Distance (1975) and Seeing the World (1980), which received the Royal Society of Literature Award under the W.H. Heinemann Bequest in 1981.

Dick Davis has developed a plain and economical style in which feeling, thought and form blend with uncommon precision. His distinctive personal rhythms spring from the controlled use of classical forms. For all their air of ordered, calmly paced craft, his poems delve into the inexplicable with an acute sense of the complexities of human nature and a fine intuition for those moments in which actual and symbolic realities connect. His gift for memorable lines, for brevity and grace under pressure make him a poet whose verse can be widely appreciated and understood.

Dick Davis was born in 1945, and after graduating from King's College, Cambridge, he worked as a teacher in various places including Iran, where he lived for eight years. With his wife Afkham Darbandi he has translated Attar's The Conference of the Birds for Penguin Classics.