The Breakage: Poems

A series of verse letters to the English poet Edward Thomas, killed in the First World War, forms the centerpiece of this remarkable collection. Like most of the poems, it expresses a deep concern for England, past and present. Other poems, whether lyrical or narrative, comic or contemplative, explore love and fatherhood, triumph and longing. Some are adventures from the known to the ineffable; some draw on the poet's travels and his time living in Amherst, Massachusetts.

"Glyn Maxwell covers a greater distance in a single line than most people do in a poem. There is an extraordinary propulsion in his work, owing in part to his tendency to draw metaphor from the syntax itself. He is a poet of immense promise and unforgettable delivery." -- Joseph Brodsky

"Glyn Maxwell's originality lies in his astonishing ability to orchestrate asides, parenthetical quips, side-of-the-mouth ruminations into a formal verse with a bravura not dared before. His poems have the vigor and freshness of first drafts, which preserves their immediacy, but they are more finished and rewarding than most contemporary verse." -- Derek Walcott

"THE BREAKAGE is astonishing in the consistency of control of subject matter and form, and the subtle manipulation of voice. Maxwell has that rare knack of unsettling the givens ... This is his best work." Observer