Allen Curnow 19112001 was at the time of his death regarded as one of the greatest of all poets writing in English For seventy years from Valley of Decision 1933 to The Bells of Saint Babels 2001 Curnows poetry was always on the move from his early approaches to New Zealand identity and myth to later work concerned with the philosophical encounter between word and worldCurnow also played a major role in New Zealand life as editor critic commentator and anthologist as well as a muchloved writer of light verse under the penname of Whim Wham In his later years he acquired an impressive international reputation winning the Commonwealth Prize for Poetry and the Queens Gold Medal for PoetryThroughout his lifetime Allen Curnow revised selected and collected his poetry in various ways For the first time this collection brings together all of the poems that Curnow collected in his lifetime grouped in their original volumes The notes reproduce Curnows comments on individual poems and include relevant editorial guidanceThis is the definitive collection of work by New Zealands most distinguished poet