A celebration of fathers and fatherhood, this anthology features the richly varied voices of sons and daughters, and of fathers and grandfathers themselves. From eleventh-century Chinese poet Su Tung-p'o's witty 'On the Birth of His Son' to Dylan Thomas's poignant 'Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night'; from Sylvia Plath's searing poem 'Daddy' to Yeats's tender 'A prayer for My Daughter'; from Homer to Seamus Heaney, from Shakespeare to Milosz, the poets and poems collected here range across cultures and centuries, and deal with every facet of the father-child relationship from birth to death and beyond. Gratitude, tenderness and awe infuse some of the poems.

Others express anger or sorrow. Many are moving tributes to the first man in a child's life. And each one conveys the profound nature of fatherhood.