The beating heart, the drumbeat, the very force of life. What then when we say 'it breaks'? 'I'm heart-broken'? Few of us escape a life without some measure of heartache and the pain it causes.

In this volume we give full rein to our classic poets across the centuries from Shakespeare and Aphra Behn to Rupert Brooke, Edna St Vincent Millay, A E Housman and continue through Radclyffe Hall, Emily Dickinson and Oscar Wilde.

It is a journey through feelings, thoughts and expressions in words that we instantly understand, claim as our own and yet reveal other layers, other avenues of thought.

Whether to soothe the soul, to reconcile with a different perhaps fractured reality, and come to terms with dejection, rejection or vent with bitterness, rage and seek revenge, our poets have words and lines of verse to help balm, repair and better understand these emotional times.