Devices and Desires' is Dick Davis's selection from his three earlier books, together with twenty-three new poems. This collection by one of England's most original, yet traditional, poets demonstrates the range of themes which he commands, and the gift for clear, memorable and subtle writing which has won a wide readership for his poetry.

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. Seeing the World', his second book of poems, received the Royal Society of Literature Award under the W. H. Heinemann Bequest in 1981.