Charles Tomlinson taught at the University of Bristol from 1957 until his retirement. He has published many collections, including Collected Poems and volumes of criticism and translation. He also edited the Oxford Book of Verse in English Translation.

Emerging from the practice, art, and magic of translation, this essay collection concerns itself with the way certain fables of metamorphosis have captured the poetic imagination and how translation-literary metamorphosis-extends this process. The syntax and diction of the prose of John Ruskin, so important to the evolution of Proust's prose style, is offered as an example of the way visual experience can suggest certain methods of approach to the poet. Demonstrated is how, with a wealth of examples and close readings, poetry itself is a form of metamorphosis, raw materials being transformed and realized though literary expression and technique. In these essays a major poet reflects on the core and timeless elements of the poetic craft.