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The editor is grateful to Timothy Adès and all the translators who have worked with him for the commitment they have shown in producing the splendid array of work contained in the translation feature. [Ed]

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Editing this Supplement has been an absolute delight. Free of the economic constraints of print, so odious to editors and even more to contributors, I have been able to accept everything and exclude nothing. And with little prompting, I’ve been regaled, deluged with exciting material.

This Supplement is arranged in two parts: before and after 1900. First, something from the remote past of Arabia: English verse from French prose. Then to the nineteenth century, which still dominates our reception of French poetry, with so many great poets – among them Hugo, who in his time outweighed them all. And he noticed children: not many great poets do. Rilke leads us into the…