A close poetic ally of Ezra Pound and Louis Zukofsky, British poet Basil Bunting is best known for his use of specific musical form in poetry. Several of his works, including his long poem "Briggflatts", are in the form of the sonata. Although his language is plain, unvarnished English, his influences and models extend to Classical, Persian and Japanese verse. This volume collects two series of lectures that Bunting delivered in 1968 and 1974. Tracing the development of an English poetry governed by families of stress-groups from Beowulf down to Wyatt, Wordsworth, Whitman, Pound and Zukofsky, the lectures focus on writing and hearing poetry rather than on literary-historical concerns. Throughout, editor Peter Makin expands upon and annotates the lectures with additional comments drawn from Bunting's writings.