Near the heart of our understanding of nature lies the mosaic of fields and meadows. It should not surprise us that their significance, essential qualities and changing character through time and the seasons are celebrated by the voices of poets. Now, when fields - the unwritten history of our relationship with the land - are under persistent attack from development, agrochemicals and genetic engineering, poetry raises questions about the real partnership between humankind and nature that fields represent. This anthology brings together the work of more than 90 poets, ancient and modern, including Wendell Berry, John Betjeman, John Burnside, Helen Dunmore, Ivor Gurney, Seamus Heaney, Elizabeth Jennings, John Keats, Alice Oswald, Kathleen Raine and Walt Whitman.