Drawn from papers given at an international conference held in 1999, this collection of essays offers new perspectives on Scots poetry of the late Middle Ages and early modern period. It includes essays on major poets, such as John Barbour, Robert Henryson, David Lyndsay and William Drummond; it also considers less famous writers such as John Bellenden and John Stewart of Baldynneis. Across these tightly focused essays, two themes predominate: the first is the imagined relationship between writer and reader, revealing a consistent concern with interpretation in Older Scots writing; the second is the place of literary influence, whether that too is Scots or from beyond Scotland’s borders. This volume will be of interest to all academics and students with an interest in Older Scots writing; it will also have some appeal for scholars working in late medieval and early modern literature more generally.