Clive Wilmer spoke of 'the ghostly music' of Sally Purcell's poetry and described her first book as 'a miracle of chaste perfection'. These qualities remained constant in her work. Often drawing on folklore and mediaeval sources, her poems are tense yet fluid in rhythm and diction, and alive with a sense of the numinous. As Elizabeth Jennings wrote, 'Miss Purcell is masterly in her handling of myth and ancient history'. Sally Purcell's "Collected Poems" contains all her published work and includes over 70 uncollected poems. This is the definitive edition of a poet with a growing body of admirers.