Bill Manhire, by trade a medievalist and by vocation a poet, has - like those writers who invented and developed English poetry - helped to make something charged and original out of his landscapes (including Antarctica) and his language. He was New Zealand's first Poet Laureate and is one of its most popular and entertaining writers. This book traces his evolution over more than four decades, from The Elaboration (1972) through to The Victims of Lightning (2010) and new poems. It is the story of a love affair with the planet: 'The world is a constant amazement, / always on the move'.