Literary studies: poetry and poets Books

Book SynopsisSatan is out for revenge. His rebellion has failed, he has been cast out from heaven and is doomed to spend eternity in hell. Somehow he must find a way to prove his power and wound his enemies. He fixes upon God''s beloved new creations, Adam and Eve, as the vehicles of his vengeance. In this dramatic and influential epic, Milton tells the story of the serpent and the apple, the fall of man and the exile from paradise in stunningly vivid and powerful verse.Trade ReviewOffers an intensely filmic description of the events that countless artists have sought to visualise * The Times *Milton represents the English imagination at its most organised, disciplined and sublime -- Tom Paulin * Guardian *Never was a work of literature so imbued with the visual. He creates a universe that never existed, and paints it so you see it and are overwhelmed by its immensity, its magnificent splendour at the top end, the great dark plains and huge rocky mountains, the fires and storms at the other - and the horror of the void between -- Julian Rathbone * Independent *I read Paradise Lost when I was 11, and it made me suddenly realise that the Devil was sexy, which was quite muddling at that age and had disastrous consequences in that I then lusted after unsuitable men for the rest of my life -- Jilly Cooper * Daily Mail *When the blind John Milton came to retell the story of Genesis in book seven of Paradise Lost he dwelt with understandable poignancy on the sheer visual loveliness of the newly created world. Anyone who thinks Milton is a pedantic old bore should peruse the lines that celebrate the wonder and beauty of birds' flight, migration and song * Financial Times *

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Book SynopsisBroken Hierarchies collects twenty books of poems by Geoffrey Hill, written over sixty years, and presents them in their definitive form. Four of these books (Ludo, Expostulations on the Volcano, Liber Illustrium Virorum, and Al Tempo de'' Tremuoti) have never before appeared in print, and three of them (Hymns to Our Lady of Chartres, Pindarics, and Clavics) have been greatly revised and expanded.Trade ReviewVivid clarity ... intense lyric beauty. This is work of the first importance. * Paul Batchelor, Book of the Year 2014, Times Literary Supplement *The scale and consistency of this volume, meticulously edited by Kenneth Haynes, and handsomely, if rather minutely, set out, with plenty of white space around poems and a jacket bearing an image from Kokoschka, give it a monumental air ... At the vital, latter end of the book there are huge achievements and intricate exercises, experimental in their rigour. Hill's scraggy apple tree is indeed an emblem of his stupendous late-spring flowering. * John Kerrigan, Times Literary Supplement *Broken Hierarchies possesses a magisterial intellectual sweep and sense of literary high ambition which is perhaps unique in contemporary English poetry. * Terry Kelly, London Magazine *Hill has for 40-odd years kept his language as close-textured, tough, knotted and lyrical as poetry can be. If he makes old Eliot seem by comparison an easy read it is not for mere show; these poems are as beautiful, hard, compressed and granular as the rocks and stones and trees from which they are made. * Fred Inglis, The Times Higher Education Supplement *If the phrase "greatest living poet in the English language" has any meaning, then we should use it to describe Hill. * Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian *He can rival the best. * Jeremy Noel-Tod, The Sunday Times *Table of ContentsFOR THE UNFALLEN (1959); KING LOG (1968); MERCIAN HYMNS (1971); TENEBRAE (1978); THE MYSTERY OF THE CHARITY OF CHARLES PEGUY (1983); HYMNS TO OUR LADY OF CHARTRES (1982 2012); CANAAN (1996); THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE (1998); SPEECH! SPEECH! (2000); THE ORCHARDS OF SYON (2002); SCENES FROM COMUS (2005); WITHOUT TITLE (2006); PINDARICS (2005 2012); A TREATISE OF CIVIL POWER (2007); LUDO (2011); THE DAYBOOKS (2007 2012)

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Book SynopsisA lean, fleet-footed translation that recaptures Homer’s "nimble gallop" and brings an ancient epic to new life.

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Book SynopsisWilliam Graves is Robert Graves's son and Literary Executor. He still lives in Deya, but earns a living as a geologist consulting to the oil industry. He is married with two children.Trade ReviewAn excellent short memoir, recalling the magic of his childhood on Majorca, but also showing how hard it is to live with such a father. * Derwent May, European *William Graves's forthright memoir not only gives a sharp account of Father's foibles but offers a fuller evocation of the swiftly changing scene at Deyá and Palma than in Robert's sketchy Majorca Observed. * London Magazine *In Wild Olives, William, the eldest son of Robert Graves's second marriage, has given us a delightful, personal account of life with father after the family's return to Majorca - all the local intrigues, litigation and gossip interlaced with vivid descriptions of the mental processes by which Graves imagined himself back into the past or made mercurially intuitive connections like some kind of literary Sherlock Holmes * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewPraise for What's Good:". . . this ode to rap is sure to surprise and delight. . . . Open to any bite-sized chapter and you're sure to find some tantalizing tidbit worth your time."—Grace Utomo, Rain Taxi Review of Books "Written in short, savorably dense chapters, What's Good manages to be many kinds of books at the same time. It’s exhaustive — in its command of rap lyrics, in its ear for modulations in meaning and tone, in its ability to straddle the complexities of race and identity as they converge in rap . . . "—Aaron Peck, Los Angeles Review of Books "A book filled with such love and thoughtfulness and fun has to come from a fan; who but a genuine devotee would use his introductory chapter to provide a deep reading of 50 Cent’s 'In Da Club?'"—Adam Ellsworth, The Arts Fuse "Music aficionados and hip-hop lovers will savor every bit."—Publishers Weekly "His book performs a unique and exciting rhetorical move, presenting itself as a sort of freestyle in its own right: short, punchy chapters that each focus on a single lyric."—ALTA "There is so much I admire about Daniel Levin Becker's What's Good: how knowledgeable it is, how synoptic, how precise, persuasive, and risky; I love its savvy politics, its passion, its aching, tragic heart."—David Shields, author of Black Planet: Facing Race during an NBA Season "All in all, What's Good is an enlightening, self-aware, and deeply satisfying look at the wondrous ways rap music uses language. It is absolutely essential reading on hip-hop—and one of the smartest books about music I've read."—Ian Port, author of The Birth of Loud: Leo Fender, Les Paul, and the Guitar-Pioneering Rivalry That Shaped Rock 'n' Roll "What's Good: Notes on Rap and Language is a celebration of the artistry and craft of rap lyrics written in a way that only Daniel Levin Becker could, with his sharp eye for linguistic experimentation and his appreciation for the ways rappers have been able to turn English inside out. His fascination is contagious as he revels in the incredible vitality of this ever-morphing lexicon, from its rhymes to its slang to its creation of new modes of meaning. It's the book us lovers of music and language had no idea we needed."—Emma Ramadan, Riffraff Books, Providence, RI "Characterized with a clear love for hip-hop, Daniel Levin Becker's What's Good is a joyful and deep dive into the many wonders of hip-hop as an art form."—Bennard Fajardo, Politics and Prose Bookstore, Washington DC "Exceptionally well written, impressively informed and informative, and an absorbing read from cover to cover, What's Good: Notes on Rap and Language will have particular interest for poets, literary critics, authors and lyricists. Thoughtful and thought-provoking, What's Good: Notes on Rap and Language is an extraordinary and highly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, college, and university library Contemporary Literary Criticism collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists."—Micah Andrew, Midwest Library Review"What’s Good: Notes on Rap and Language is a studied, well-researched, critical, and loving exploration of the wit, humor, nuance, intelligence, meaning-making, truth telling, occasional hyperbolic absurdity, and craft of the MC and, in turn, Hip Hop culture. Becker approaches the topic with the care, competence, and appreciation of a lifelong Hip Hop aficionado and, as a result, What’s Good is a remarkable achievement that deserves a place in any Hip Hop studies collection."—Craig Arthur, Virginia Tech, College & Research Libraries

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Book SynopsisThe Beauty Hunters offers a rare insight into Sudanese Bedouin poetry, its evolution, aesthetics, and impact.Trade Review“The clouds of neglect have parted, and an enchanting book of classical African poetry has come forth shining. The Bedouin poetry of Sudan, a descendant perhaps of the pre-Islamic poetry of Arabia, can also sit alongside the Chinese Book of Songs and Hāla’s Sattasaī of India, pure poetry bearing the scent of the land and woven with silk-fine imagery and exquisite lyricism. The Beauty Hunters is a tour de force, proving once again that Africa is the heart of the world’s beauty and light. Thank you, Adil Babikir, for this wonder of a book.”—Khaled Mattawa, author of Fugitive Atlas“Here the legacy and enduring appeal of al-Ḥārdallo, Sudan’s preeminent nineteenth-century poet, is showcased with thoroughness and panache. Oryxes, heavy rains, and dancing women blaze through a vivid pastoral landscape of nomadic tribes and journeys guided by the stars. Adil Babikir’s moving and vibrant translations capture the exuberance and pathos of this Afro-Arab poet, caught in the crosshairs of imperialism. The Beauty Hunters bears witness to the richness and range of Arabic as it mingles with the local Beja and Nubian languages of Africa.”—Leila Aboulela, author of Minaret and The TranslatorTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Notes on Transliteration Introduction: A Life’s Journey in Search of Beauty 1. Al-Ḥārdallo’s Time 2. Romance 3. The Nature Lover 4. Al-Ḥārdallo’s Style 5. The Musdār: A Historical Context 6. Musdār al-Nijūm: A Journey across the Stars 7. Musdār Rufāʾa: A Terrestrial Journey across the Buṭāna 8. The Role of Bedouin Poetry in Shaping Sudan’s Aesthetic Taste 9. The Bedouin Poem: A Living Legacy 10. The Musdār and the Ḥaqība 11. Contemporary Musdārs 12. Al-Ḥārdallo’s Poems Musdār al-Ṣayd Miscellaneous Quatrains Nostalgia Romance Heartbreak The Ordeal Farewell Arabic Glossary of Local Terms Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe life, work and history of Aphra Behn: seventeenth century dramatist, poet, novelist, political propagandist, bisexual writer, and spy. Praise for the first hardback edition: Fascinating scholarship. Todd conveys Behn's vivacious character and the mores of the time. the New York Times Ground-breakingit reads quickly and lightly. Even Todd s throwaway lines are steeped in learning and observation. Ruth Perry, MIT, Women s Review of Books A major biography; of interest to everyone who cares about women as writers. Times Higher Education Supplement Fascinating, a page-turner and a delight, an astonishingly thorough book. Emma Donoghue All women together ought to let flowers fall on the tomb of Aphra Behn...For it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds. Virginia Woolf Aphra Behn, a spy in the Netherlands and the Americas, was the first professional woman writer. The most prolific dramatist of her age, innovative novelist, translator, lyrical and erotic poet, she expresses a frank sexuality addressing impotence, orgasm and bisexuality, whilst serving as political propagandist for the monarch. This revised biography of the extraordinary, ground-breaking writer, who is emblematic of the Restoration period, a time of masks and self-fashioning, is set in conflict-ridden England, Europe, and in the mismanaged slave colonies, following the Puritan republic in 1660. Janet Todd, novelist and internationally renowned scholar, was President of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, and a Professor at Rutgers, NJ. An expert on women s writing and feminism, she has published on many writers, including Jane Austen, the Shelley Circle, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Aphra Behn. "

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Book SynopsisA world of dewAnd within every dewdropA world of struggle The iconic three-line haiku form is increasingly popular today as people embrace its simplicity and grace—and its connections to the Japanese ethos of mindfulness and minimalism. Say more with fewer words.This practical guide by poet and teacher Bruce Ross shows you how to capture a fleeting moment, like painting a picture with words, and how to give voice to your innermost thoughts, feelings, and observations. You don't have to be a practiced poet or writer to write your own haiku, and this book shows you how.In this book, aspiring poets will find: Accessible, easy-to-replicate examples and writing prompts A foreword that looks at the state of haiku today as the form continues to expand worldwide An introduction to related Japanese haiku forms such as tanka, haiga, renga, haibun, and senryu A listing of international journals and online resources Do you want to tell a story? Give haibun a try. Maybe you want to express a fleeting feeling? A tanka is the perfect vehicle. Are you more visual than verbal? Then a haiga, or illustrated haiku, is the ideal match. Finally, a renga is perfect as a group project or to create with friends, passing a poem around, adding line after line, and seeing what your group effort amounts to.Ross walks readers through the history and form of haiku, before laying out what sets each Japanese poetic form apart. Then it's time to turn to your notebook and start drafting some verse of your own!

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Book SynopsisThis labyrinthine and extraordinary book, first published more than fifty years ago, was the outcome of Graves''s vast reading and curious research into strange territories of folklore, mythology, religion and magic. Erudite and impassioned, it is a scholar-poet''s quest for the meaning of European myths, a polemic about the relations between man and woman, and also an intensely personal document in which Graves explored the sources of his own inspiration and, as he believed, all true poetry.This new edition has been prepared by Grevel Lindop, who has written an illuminating introduction. The text of the book incorporates all Graves''s final revisions, as well as his replies to two of the original reviewers, and a long essay in which he describes the months of inspiration in which The White Goddess was written.

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Book SynopsisThis entirely new edition brings together all of Philip Larkin''s poems. In addition to those in Collected Poems (1988), and in the Early Poems and Juvenilia (2005), some unpublished pieces from Larkin''s typescripts and workbooks are included, as well as verse (by turns scurrilous, satirical, affectionate, and sentimental) tucked away in his letters. The manuscript and printed sources have been scrutinized afresh; more detailed accounts than hitherto available of the sources of the text and of dates of composition are provided; and previous accounts of composition dates have been corrected. Variant wordings from Larkin''s typescripts and the early printings are recorded.For the first time, the poems are given a comprehensive commentary. This draws critically upon, and substantially extends, the accumulated scholarship on Larkin, and covers closely relevant historical contexts, persons and places, allusions and echoes, and linguistic usage. Due pro

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Book SynopsisFeatures witty illustrations and inspirational quotes. This title covers every work, from the comedies of Twelfth Night and As You Like It to the tragedies of Julius Caesar and Hamlet, and lost plays and less well-known works of poetry.

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Book SynopsisAn essential selection from the range and bulk of Robert Graves''s poetry, edited by Ulster poet Michael Longley. This edition restores Graves to view as a major twentieth century poet, and demonstrates his manifold achievement as war poet, as love poet, and as - in the round - a secular visionary whose poems are ''inimitable, eccentric marvels - some of which are extraordinary, many are masterly, all are like nothing else ever written'' (Randall Jarrell).This edition of Robert Graves''s poems is scrupulously selected from across the full range of his lifetime''s verse. It opens with an illuminating introduction in which Longley makes a persuasive case for the importance of this remarkable poet.

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Book SynopsisFirst published in 1997, Keats was the first major biography of this tragic hero of Romanticism for some thirty years, and it differs from its predecessors in important respects. The outline of the story is well known - has become, in fact, the stuff of legend: the archetypal life of the tortured genius, critically spurned and dying young. What Andrew Motion brings to bear on the subject is a deep understanding of how Keats fitted into the intellectual and political life of his time. Important friendships with such anti-establishment figures as William Hazlitt and Leigh Hunt are given their full due, and the closeness of his own spirit, as expressed in his poems, to the ferment all around is made clear. Many significant facts about Keats''s schooldays and medical training, in particular, enrich the picture. Keats emerges as a more political figure than he is usually portrayed, but his personal sufferings, too, come into closer focus. Most importantly, Andrew Motion -

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Book SynopsisT. S. Eliot is regarded as the most important poetcritic of modern times, the twentieth century's Man of Letters' whose reputation was forged not only on the strength of his verse, but on the enduring influence of his critical writings. The Collected Prose presents those works that Eliot allowed to reach print in the order of their final revision or printing. Publishing across four volumes, the series aims to provide an authoritative and clean-text record of Eliot's approved texts and their revisions, beginning with his formative observations, written while he was at high school, and concluding in his final major opus, To Criticize the Critic, published in the months after his death.This fourth and final volume from 19511966, covers a period of concluding productivity in Eliot's writing. Although his poetry was all but complete, his theatrical and critical work flourished through a decade that included such books as Poetry and Drama (1951)

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Book SynopsisPam Ayres, our much-loved comedienne and broadcaster, has entertained us for almost 40 years since winning Opportunity Knocks in 1975. Her series on BBC Radio 4 is Ayres on the Air, and she has also appeared as a guest on Just A Minute, Loose Ends and Saturday Live. She is one of the UK's top-selling comediennes with her theatre shows.Pam's poetry collections include The Works, With These Hands and Surgically Enhanced, and The Necessary Aptitude is her memoir of growing up in Berkshire during the post-war years. Pam has appeared three times for HM Queen Elizabeth, and was awarded the MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours of 2004. Pam and her husband have lived in Gloucestershire for over 25 years, where they have a smallholding with cattle, sheep, bees, chickens and guinea fowl.www.pamayres.com@PamAyresTrade ReviewWhen I say that Pam Ayres ought to be the Oxford Professor of Poetry, even the Poet Laureate, I am not being facetious ... Ayres uses simple verse forms - comic ballads or folk song idioms - to make poignant observations about tiresome husbands, gossiping wives, false teeth or battery hens. I find her work sweet and sour, gentle and sad, and often very moving in its wistful way -- Roger Lewis * Daily Mail *Her wistful, funny and perceptive verse captures both the joy and unfairness of life * Sunday Times *A wonderful, wonderful book -- Paul O’GradyHer humour, which verges on the black at times, is contagious and so original * Daily Telegraph *A national treasure. There are clear comparisons between Pam and Sir John Betjeman * Daily Express *

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Book SynopsisThis is a comprehensive critical guide to Chaucer''s Troilus and Criseyde. This new edition has been comprehensively revised in light of the latest scholarly and critical research and with a fully updated bibliography. It includes a full account of Chaucer''s imaginative deployment of his sources, and an extended survey of this narrative poem''s innovative combination of a range of generic identities. The chapters explain how Chaucer builds thematic significance into his poem''s symmetrical structure, and the poem''s distinctive variety in style and language, as well as a full commentary on the poem''s concerns with love in the contexts of time and mutability and human free will. The Guide explores the poem as an extended debate about the nature and value of love, and how love was conceptualized and experienced as a form of service in quest of compassionate reward, a quasi-religious devotion, and a potentially fatal illness always in hope of cure. The subjectivities of the chief protagTrade ReviewReview from previous edition carefully written ... deeply learned ... sensible and judicious ... with monumental patience and humility Windeatt has served Chaucer and his students well * Notes and Queries *provides a rich compendium of knowledge ... highly recommended * Choice *

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Book SynopsisJohn Burnside was among the most acclaimed writers of his generation. His novels, short stories, poetry and memoirs won numerous awards, including the Geoffrey Faber Memorial, Saltire Scottish Book of the Year and, in 2023, he received the David Cohen Prize for a lifetime's achievement in literature. In 2011 Black Cat Bone won both the Forward and the T.S. Eliot Prizes for poetry.Trade ReviewThe unmistakable work of a master -- Bernard O’Donoghue * Times Literary Supplement *A tour de force of liminal expression... Burnside is not a wispily ethereal poet. A stretch of country crossed during the hunt is captured in oils, not in thin watercolours...poignantly luminous...[an] engrossing collection -- M. Wynn Thomas * Guardian *Black Cat Bone is a deserving winner of this year's Forward Prize for best collection. John Burnside's twelfth volume adds to and deepens a body of poetry that is already exceptionally significant - and utterly recognisable. A musician and chromaticist, he's a poet whose rapt, floating verse conjures up effects of great beauty in both the ear and the imagination -- Fiona Sampson * Independent *A haunting book of great beauty, powered by love, childhood memory, human longing and loneliness. In an exceptional year, it is an outstanding book, one which the judges felt grew with every reading -- Gillian Clarke, chair of the T.S. Eliot PrizeOne of the most gifted poets writing today -- Paul Batchelor * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisEvelyn Waugh''s first book: a portrait of one of the greatest artists of the nienteenth century, from one of the greatest writers of the twentieth''Biography, as books about the dead are capriciously catalogued, is still very much in the mode''This is a sparkling account of Dante Gabriel Rossetti''s tragic and mysterious life, telling the story behind some of the greatest poetry and painting of the nineteenth century. Shot through with charm and dry wit, and illuminated by his sense of kinship with the Pre-Raphaelite artist, Rossetti is at once a brilliant reevaluation of Rosetti''s work and legacy, as well as a blast of defiance against the art establishment of Waugh''s day.''The youthful high spirits of the writing make this a true cultural delight'' New Statesman''To be celebrated with fireworks, bunting and marching bands'' Country LifeTrade ReviewThe youthful high spirits of the writing makes this a true cultural delight * The New Statesman *Its re-issue is an event to be celebrated with fireworks, bunting and marching bands * Country Life *

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Book SynopsisJonathan Bate, born in 1958, is the author of The Genius of Shakespeare, Song of the Earth and a novel, The Cure for Love. He is the Leverhulme Research Professor of English at the University of Warwick and writes regularly for the Telegraph, the TLS and the Independent.

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Book SynopsisIn this series, a contemporary poet selects and introduces a poet of the past. By their choice of poems and by the personal and critical reactions they express in their prefaces, the editors offer insights into their own work as well as providing an accessible and passionate introduction to some of the greatest poets in our literature.W. B. Yeats (1865-1939) was born in Dublin, and was educated in Ireland and England. He was instrumental in the development of a national Irish theatre - and in particular, the founding of the Abbey Theatre. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.

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Book SynopsisJohn Clare (1793-1864), the ''peasant poet'', worked as an agricultural labourer in Northamptonshire until a deterioration in his mental health saw him committed to an insane asylum. He published four volumes of verse, including Poems, Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery (1820), and The Shepherd''s Calendar (1827).In this series, a contemporary poet selects and introduces a poet of the past. By their choice of poems and by the personal and critical reactions they express in their prefaces, the editors offer insights into their own work as well as providing an accessible and passionate introduction to some of the greatest poets of our literature.Trade Review"'Faber has a poetry list worth bragging about. What other publisher could conjure up a series like this?' The Times"

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Book SynopsisIt was as a poet that Samuel Beckett launched himself in the little reviews of 1930s Paris, and as a poet that he ended his career. This new selection, from Whoroscope (1930) to ''what is the word'' (1988), describes a lifetime''s arc of writing. It was as a poet moreover that Beckett made his first breakthrough into writing in French, and the Selected Poems represents work in both languages, including the sequence of brief but highly crafted mirlitonnades, which did so much to usher in the style of his late prose, and come as close as anything he wrote to honouring the ambition to ''bore one hole after another in language, until what lurks behind it - be it something or nothing - begins to seep through.'' Also included are several of Beckett''s translations from contemporaries - Apollinaire, Eluard, Michaux, Montale - in versions which count among his own poetic achievements. Edited by David Wheatley

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Book SynopsisSir John Betjeman (1906-84) was born in Highgate, the son of a manufacturer of Dutch descent. His poetry enjoyed immense popularity, as did his personality, and his knighthood in 1969 and appointment as Poet Laureate in 1972 were universally welcomed.Other volumes in this series: Auden, Eliot, Plath, Hughes and Yeats.

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Book SynopsisWriters like to elude their public, lead them a bit of a dance. They take them down untrodden paths, land them in unknown country where they have to ask for directions.In this personal anthology, Alan Bennett has chosen over seventy poems by six well-loved poets, discussing the writers and their verse in his customary conversational style through anecdote, shrewd appraisal and spare but telling biographical detail. Ranging from hidden treasures to famous poems, this is a collection for the beginner and the expert alike. Speaking with candour about his own reactions to the work, Alan Bennett creates profound and witty portraits of Thomas Hardy, A. E. Housman, John Betjeman, W. H. Auden, Louis MacNeice and Philip Larkin, all the more enjoyable for being in his own particular voice.Anybody writing poetry in the thirties had somehow to come to terms with Auden. Auden, you see, had got a head start on the other poets. He''d got into the thirties first, like some

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Book Synopsis''If a thing loves, it is infinite'' William BlakeA short, impassioned argument for why the visionary artist William Blake is important in the twenty-first centuryThe visionary poet and painter William Blake is a constant presence throughout contemporary culture - from videogames to novels, from sporting events to political rallies and from horror films to designer fashion. Although he died nearly 200 years ago, something about his work continues to haunt the twenty-first century. What is it about Blake that has so endured? In this illuminating essay, John Higgs takes us on a whirlwind tour to prove that far from being the mere New Age counterculture figure that many assume him to be, Blake is now more relevant than ever.

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Book SynopsisThis anthology brings together extensive selections of poetry by the five most prolific and prominent women poets of the English Civil War period: Anne Bradstreet, Hester Pulter, Margaret Cavendish, Katherine Philips and Lucy Hutchinson. It presents these poems in modern-spelling, clear-text versions for classroom use, and for ready comparison to mainstream editions of male poets’ work. The anthology reveals the diversity of women’s poetry in the mid-seventeenth century, across political affiliations and forms of publication. Notes on the poems and an introduction explain the contexts of Civil War, religious conflict, and scientific and literary development. The anthology enables a more comprehensive understanding of seventeenth-century women’s poetic culture, both in its own right and in relation to prominent male poets such as Marvell, Milton and Dryden.Trade Review‘Sarah Ross and Elizabeth Scott-Baumann’s readable, beautifully presented, and affordable new anthology, Women Writers of the English Civil War, makes it easier than ever before to appreciate the extent to which women poets participated in )and fundamentally contributed to) early modern experiments in poetic form.’Dianne Mitchell, Renaissance Studies -- .Table of ContentsIntroductionAnne Bradstreetfrom The Tenth Muse (1650)The PrologueThe Four MonarchiesA Dialogue between Old England and NewAn Elegy upon that Honourable and Renowned Knight, Sir Philip Sidney (1650)In Honour of Du BartasIn Honour of that High and Mighty Princess, Queen ElizabethDavid’s Lamentation for Saul and Jonathan from Several Poems (1678)An Elegy upon that Honourable and Renowned Knight, Sir Philip Sidney (1678)The Flesh and the SpiritThe Author to her BookA Letter to her Husband, Absent upon Public EmploymentAnotherIn Memory of my Dear Grandchild Elizabeth BradstreetHester PulterThe Invitation into the Country, to my Dear DaughtersThe Complaint of ThamesOn Those Two Unparalleled Friends, Sir George Lisle and Sir Charles LucasUpon the Death of my Dear and Lovely DaughterOn the Same [Tell me no more]Upon the Imprisonment of his Sacred Majesty, that Unparalleled Prince King Charles the FirstOn the Horrid Murder of that Incomparable Prince, King Charles the FirstOn the Same [Let none sigh more]The Circle [1]Dear God turn not away thy faceThe Circle [2]On the King’s Most Excellent MajestyTo my Dear J.P., M.P., P.P, They Being at London, I at BroadfieldA Solitary ComplaintMust I thus ever interdicted be?Why must I thus forever be confinedTo Sir William Davenant, upon the Unspeakable Loss of the Most Conspicuous and Chief Ornament of his FrontispieceThe Weeping WishEmblem 4Emblem 20Emblem 22Katherine Philipsfrom the ‘Tutin’ Manuscript To my Dearest Antenor on his PartingA Retired Friendship, to ArdeliaFriendship’s Mysteries, to my Dearest LucasiaContent, to my Dearest LucasiaFriendship in Emblem, or the Seal, to my Dearest Lucasiafrom the ‘Tutin’ Manuscript, reverseThe WorldThe SoulInvitation to the CountryOn the 3rd September 16512 Corinthians 5:19from Poems (1664)Upon the Double Murder of King Charles IOn the Numerous Access of the English to Wait upon the King in FlandersArion on a Dolphin, to his Majesty in his Passage into EnglandOn the Fair Weather Just at CoronationOn the Death of the Queen of BohemiaTo the Right Honourable Alice Countess of CarberyTo Antenor, on a Paper of mine which J. Jones Threatens to Publish to Prejudice HimA Country LifeUpon Mr. Abraham Cowley’s Retirementfrom Poems (1667)Epitaph on her Son H. P. at St Sith’s ChurchTo my Antenor, March 16 1661/2Orinda upon Little Hector PhilipsMargaret Cavendish from Philosophical Fancies (1653)Of Sense and Reason Exercised in their Different Shapes A Dialogue between the Body and the Mind An Elegy from Poems and Fancies (1664)The Poetress’s Hasty ResolutionA World Made by Atoms Of the Subtlety of MotionOf Vacuum Of Stars A World in an Earring The Purchase of Poets A Dialogue between Man and Nature A Dialogue between an Oak and a Man Cutting him Down A Dialogue between a Bountiful Knight and a Castle Ruined in War The Clasp The Hunting of the Hare A Description of an Island The Ruin of this Island Wherein Poetry Chiefly Consists A Description of a Shepherd’s and Shepherdess’s LifeThe Clasp: Of Fairies in the BrainUpon the Funeral of my Dear Brother Lucy Hutchinsonfrom De Rerum NaturaBook 1, lines 1-152Book 2, lines 1048-1180Book 4, lines 1019-1321To Mr Waller upon his Panegyric to the Lord Protectorfrom Elegies1. Leave off, ye pitying friends2. To the Sun Shining into her Chamber2(a). Ah! Why doth death its latest stroke delay3. Another on the Sun Shine 7. To the Garden at Owthorpe10. The Recovery12. Musings in my Evening Walks at Owthorpe14. On the Spring, 166820. You sons of England whose unquenched flamefrom Order and DisorderPrefaceBook 1, lines 1-150Book 3, lines 91-188Book 9, lines 1-122from Memoirs of the Life of the Colonel HutchinsonAll Sorts of MenTextual introductionTextual notesIndex of first lines

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Book SynopsisThe first biography of this great and tragic poet that takes advantage of a wealth of new material, this is an unusually balanced, comprehensive and definitive life of Sylvia Plath.'Surely the final, the definitive, biography of Sylvia Plath' Ali Smith *WINNER OF THE SLIGHTLY FOXED PRIZE 2021* *A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE DAILY TELEGRAPH AND THE TIMES* *FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE IN BIOGRAPHY 2021*Drawing on a wealth of new material, Heather Clark brings to life the great and tragic poet, Sylvia Plath. Refusing to read Plath's work as if her every act was a harbinger of her fate, Clark evokes a culture in transition in the mid-twentieth century as she thoroughly explores Sylvia's world. We see Plath's early relationships and determination not to become a conventional woman and wife; we witness her Cambridge years and thunderclap meeting with Ted Hughes; and, through clear-eyed portraits of the demonised players in the arena of her suicide, we gain a deeper understanding of her final days.Featuring illuminating readings of Plath's poems, Red Comet brings us closer than ever to the spirited woman and visionary artist who blazed a trail that still lights the way for women the world over.'A first-class biography . . . Each chapter reads with the ease of a novel . . . I couldn't put it down' The TimesTrade ReviewA first-class biography... Red Comet is a mighty achievement. Clark is compassionate, clear-eyed, sceptical. Each chapter reads with the ease of a novel... I couldn't put it down. -- Laura Freeman * The Times *Rescuing Sylvia Plath from the cult of her fans...[Red Comet,] a terrific, even-handed biography of Plath frees the poet from the narrow view of her as 'a mind on course for suicide'... Heather Clark's meticulous research, sweeping up every scrap, deftly integrates drafts, unpublished pieces, stories and critiques of poems...to make this extraordinary story more moving than ever. -- Lyndall Gordon * Daily Telegraph *At last, there is Red Comet, a major biography that recognises Sylvia Plath...and recovers her from cliché. It is a superbly researched, fluent and assured book...and Heather Clark writes with a rare empathy and understanding of her subject... Not one sentence seems extraneous... Red Comet reveals Plath as she ought to be seen. -- Ann Kennedy Smith * Times Literary Supplement *Clark's defining project, both a joyful affirmation for Plath fanatics and a legitimization of her legacy... Clark masterfully analyses the poetry with intelligent incorporation of the biography... In this mammoth biography of a short, troubled life, the deepest impression is of [Plath's] resilience and dogged energy. -- Jessica Ferri * Los Angeles Times *Finally, the biography that Sylvia Plath deserves, one that takes her seriously as both a poet and a person. Combining rigorous research with in-depth literary analysis and immersive style, Heather Clark's magisterial book not only traces Plath's influences and inspirations, but also chronicles her often-tumultuous relationships with respect and empathy. A spectacular achievement. -- Ruth Franklin, author of Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life

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Book SynopsisA vivid, contemporary translation of the greatest Greek love poet—with a wealth of materials for understanding her work—by a prize-winning poet and translator   Sappho’s thrilling lyric verse has been unremittingly popular for more than 2,600 years—certainly a record for poetry of any kind—and love for her art only increases as time goes on. Though her extant work consists only of a collection of fragments and a handful of complete poems, her mystique endures to be discovered anew by each generation, and to inspire new efforts at bringing the spirit of her Greek words faithfully into English. In the past, translators have taken two basic approaches to Sappho: either very literally translating only the words in the fragments, or taking the liberty of reconstructing the missing parts. Willis Barnstone has taken a middle course, in which he remains faithful to the words of the fragments, only very judiciously filling in a word or phrase in cases where the meaning is obvious. This edition includes extensive notes and a special section of “Testimonia”: appreciations of Sappho in the words of ancient writers from Plato to Plutarch. Also included are a glossary of all the figures mentioned in the poems, and suggestions for further reading.

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Book SynopsisThis collection contains more than 80% of the sonnets, including all the famous ones. In addition, there are substantial extracts from the longer narrative poems Shakespeare wrote in his youth, songs from the plays, and celebrated soliloquies from HAMLET, ROMEO AND JULIET, KING LEAR, HENRY V, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, etc. Together, these verses give a comprehensive view of shakespeare the poet by assembling all the well-known passages together with less familiar but equally powerful extracts.

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Book SynopsisAn essential anthology that puts contemporary geniuses Eileen Myles and Margaret Atwood in conversation with literary classics Charles Baudelaire and Oscar Wilde about the liberating and unique combination of poetry and proseA Penguin Classic The prose poem has proven one of the most innovative and versatile poetic forms of recent years. In the century-and-a-half since Charles Baudelaire, Emma Lazarus, Oscar Wilde and Ivan Turgenev spread the notion of a new kind of poetry, this genre with an oxymoron for a name has attracted many of our most beloved writers. Yet, even now, this peculiarly rich and expansive form is still misunderstood and overlooked. Here, Jeremy Noel-Tod reconstructs the history of the prose poem for us by selecting the essential pieces of writing, covering a greater chronological sweep and international range than any previous anthology of its kind. Noel-Tod even calls it an alternative history of modern poetry. In The Penguin Book o

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Book SynopsisThough as yet little known in English-speaking countries, Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) is the finest German poet of this century and one of the greatest lyrical writers in the history of Western literature. A major figure in the modernist movement, with some affinities to Yeats, Rilke had a profound influence on other 20th century poets such as Pasternak and Akhmatova. He is a master of vivid and breathtakingly original imagery in which difficult ideas are made directly apprehensible to the reader and new worlds of experience are opened up. This selection includes poems from all stages of his career, beginning with the delicate works of his early years, through the extraordinary poems he wrote in French (which he used like a first language) and concluding with his mature masterpieces: the SONNETS TO ORPHEUS and the DUINO ELEGIES. Also included are Rilke's prose LETTERS TO A YOUNG POET in which he counsels a younger colleague and expounds his own literary ideal. This is by far the most comprehensive selection from this poet in English and forms an ideal introduction to this work.

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Book SynopsisLarkin''s final collection of poems shows, as does all his best work, his ability to adapt contemporary speech rhythms and everyday vocabulary to subtle metrical patterns and poetic forms. Many of the poems in the collection, which includes some of his best-known pieces (''The Old Fools'', ''This Be the Verse'', ''The Explosion'', and the title poem) show the preoccupation with death and transience that is so typical of the poet.This beautifully designed edition forms part of a series of ten titles celebrating Faber''s publishing over the decades.

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Book SynopsisSince his debut, Nil Nil, won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 1993, Don Paterson has lit up the poetry scene in the U.K. His dazzling, intensely lyric and luminous verse has delighted readers ever since, and won many awards along the way. God''s Gift Women took the T. S. Eliot Prize in 1997, Landing Light won it again in 2003 and the Whitbread Award besides, and Rain (2009), his most recent collection, won the Queen''s Gold Medal for Poetry. This selection, drawn from twenty years of work, is made by the author himself and includes not only those poems from his four single volumes, but his thrilling and original adaptations of the poems of Antonio Machado and Rainer Maria Rilke. For any readers unfamiliar with Don Paterson''s work, this Selected Poems offers the perfect introduction to this most captivating of writers; and for fans, an essential gathering from a master craftsman.

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Book SynopsisRaymond Carver, who became a master-storyteller of his generation and was hailed in Europe as 'the American Chekhov', wrote of himself: "I began as a poet. My first publication was a poem. So I suppose on my tombstone I'd be very pleased if they put 'Poet and short-story writer - and occasional essayist', in that order." This complete edition allows readers to experience the range and overwhelming power of Carver's poetry for the first time. It brings together in the order of their American publication the poems of Fires (1985), Where Water Comes Together with Other Water (1986), Ultramarine (1988), A New Path to the Waterfall (1989) and No Heroics, Please (1991). For readers who know Carver's middle period only through his selected poems, In a Marine Light (1988), it includes the windfall of 51 poems not previously published in Britain. All of Us is edited by Professor William L. Stull of the University of Hartford, and introduced with an essay on Raymond Carver's methods of composition by his widow, the poet Tess Gallagher.Trade ReviewBetter known for his short stories, Raymond Carver was also an accomplished poet, as this superbly presented collection attests -- Anthony Quinn * Harpers & Queen *The cumulative effect is exhilarating: happiness, yes, but about as far as you can get from the bland, cosmic gruntlement currently being peddled by so many American poets * Times Literary Supplement *A year after the American writer's abrupt death, Salman Rushdie concluded a review of A New Path to the Waterfall, a final verse collection, by urging: 'Read everything Raymond Carver ever wrote.' It's very good advice * Irish Times *What is never lost - or lost sight of- is the primacy of experience and the most direct way of finding its expression... The urgency of the artist not to trivialise, but to find the essence; plain language in which to lay bare the terror and beauty of plain lives -- John Harvey

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Book SynopsisTrade Reviewwelcome the new additions to the finest and widest-ranging library of great writing (at accessible prices too), OUP's World's Classics series ... Goethe's Erotic Poems ... this is the first readily available version of the uncensored Elegies * Oxford Times *

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Book SynopsisIn this series, a contemporary poet selects and introduces a poet of the past. By their choice of poems and by the personal and critical reactions they express in their prefaces, the editors offer insights into their own work as well as providing an accessible and passionate introduction to some of the greatest poets in our literature.Emily Dickinson (1830-86) was born in Amherst, Massachussetts, where she lived most of her life as a recluse, seldom leaving the house or receiving visitors. She published just a handful of poems in her lifetime, her first collection appearing posthumously in 1890.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review`The best current translator of Latin poetry, Guy Lee, has now turned his attention to "The Poems of Catullus" ... this is yet another distinguished version from Lee's pen which deserves to become the standard version both for those with Latin and those studying Catullus in translation, and its author deserves hearty congratulations.' Greece and Rome'the work of a consummate Latinist ... with a desire to communicate something of the elegance and verbal flair of his original, a matter close to L.'s heart as the crisp introduction makes plain ... a very persuasive book' Roland Mayer, King's College, London, The Classical Review, Vol. XLIII, No. 2, 1993Table of ContentsIntroduction: The text; The collection: Catullus the Epigrammist; Catullus' life and poetry; the translation; A chronology; Latin text and English verse translation; Explanatory notes; Appendices: A. Difference from Mynors' Oxford text; B. The metres of Catullus; Select bibliography

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Book SynopsisThe Greek lyric, elegiac, and iambic poets of the two centuries from 650 to 450 BC - Archilochus and Alcman, Sappho and Mimnermus, Anacreon, Simonides, and the rest - produced some of the finest poetry of antiquity, perfect in form, spontaneous in expression, reflecting all the joys and anxieties of their personal lives and of the societies in which they lived. This new poetic translation by a leading expert captures the nuances of meaning and the whole spirit of this poetry as never before. It is not merely a selection but covers all the surviving poems and intelligible fragments, apart from the works of Pindar and Bacchylides, and includes a number of pieces not previously translated. The Introduction gives a brief account of the poets, and explanatory Notes on the texts will be found at the end. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

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Book SynopsisSince the publication of Walter de la Mare''s first edition of his poems in 1920, Edward Thomas has gradually come to be recognised as one of the great English poets of the 20th century.Though sometimes classified with Owen, Rosenberg and Sassoon as a ''war poet'', he was rather a poet who died tragically in the war, and whose main subjects were the English countryside and its people, and the solitude of the observing self. The present edition offers the complete poems together with detailed editorial apparatus in what has become acknowledged as the standard edition by R. George Thomas. It also includes Thomas''s remarkable prose War Diary of 1917.Trade Review'One of the most distinctive voices of the twentieth century.' P.J. Kavanagh

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Book Synopsis"The Happy Prince and Other Stories" by Oscar Wilde contains six timeless tales exploring themes of love, friendship, selfishness, good versus evil, and courage. Written in powerful yet simple language, the stories evoke deep emotions and include classics like "The Happy Prince," "The Selfish Giant," and "The Nightingale and the Rose."

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Book SynopsisA lively picture of multiple operators scrambling to steal a march on the competition . . . Lavishly detailed'FINANCIAL TIMESThis is Shakespearean scholarship at its best, brilliantly researched yet compulsively readable. It''s a book for our times, enduringly fascinating and appealing to both enthusiasts and the general reader. Highly recommended!' ALISON WEIRFINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE SUMMERA BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023?A BBC RADIO 4 FRONT ROW NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023AN AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023The year 2023 marks the 400th anniversary of Mr William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, known today simply as the First Folio. It is difficult to imagine a world without The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Antony and Cleopatra, The Winter's Tale and Macbeth, but these are just some of the plays that were only preserved thanks to the astounding labour of love that went into creating the first collection.Shakespeare's Book: The Intertwined Live

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Book Synopsis''the highest matter in the noblest form''John Donne''s description of the Psalms celebrates not only the perfection of the biblical psalms but their translation into poetic form by the Sidneys, who turned them into some of the most accomplished lyric poems of the English Renaissance. Although it was not printed until the nineteenth century, the Sidney Psalter was widely read in manuscript and influenced poets from Donne and Herbert to Milton and beyond. It turned these well-known and well-loved Psalms into sophisticated verse, selecting or inventing a different stanza form for each one. This variety of forms matches the appeal of their content: there are Psalms of praise and blame, Psalms of cursing and lamentation, Psalms of joy and exaltation, Psalms that recount history, and Psalms that describe Creation or divine law.This is the first complete edition of the Psalter for over forty years. The Psalms are provided in an authoritative modernized text, with helpful glosses and notes il

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Book SynopsisA biography of a long-forgotten but vital American Transcendentalist poet. In September of 1838, a few months after Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered his controversial Divinity School address, a twenty-five-year-old tutor and divinity student at Harvard named Jones Very stood before his beginning Greek class and proclaimed himself the second coming. Over the next twenty months, despite a brief confinement in a mental hospital, he would write more than three hundred sonnets, many of them in the voice of a prophet such as John the Baptist or even of Christ himselfall, he was quick to claim, dictated to him by the Holy Spirit. Befriended by the major figures of the Transcendentalist movement, Very strove to convert, among others, Elizabeth and Sophia Peabody, Bronson Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and most significantly, Emerson himself. Though shocking to some, his message was simple: by renouncing the individual will, anyone can become a son of God and thereby usher in a millennialistTrade Review“In God’s Scrivener: The Madness and Meaning of Jones Very, Clark Davis doesn’t spend much time on his subject’s spectacular breakdown. Instead, relying on new research, he painstakingly reconstructs everything that came before and after. . . . Mr. Davis wonders, at the end of his fine biography, if the world really needs ‘the strange purity’ of Very’s voice. But if you like your poems plain and unfussy, written as if every word mattered and were meant for you and no one else, give Very’s poetry a try. You will even get the occasional piece of useful life advice. Feeling too wrapped up in your own concerns? ‘Open thy window, gaze abroad / Go forth and walk an hour.’” * Wall Street Journal *“Davis . . . enthusiastically argues for a ‘reevaluation of the existing biographical evidence’ in his sympathetic God’s Scrivener. . . . To Davis, Very in the end is a kind of hero devoted to his vision and voice, a maverick committed to something like the beatitudes. He emerges as a kind of protomodern figure, resolute and true, who casts ‘a strong light on the compromises and half-truths of others.’” * New York Review of Books *“God’s Scrivener is a thoughtful, moving, and deeply researched portrait of the otherworldly mystic and poet Jones Very. Clark Davis reveals that, far from being the punchline of an old joke, the unjustly forgotten Very was nothing less than the stillness at the heart of Transcendentalism, joining Thoreau and Whitman as one of the era’s great poet-prophets who articulated a powerful and innovative response to the pressures of modernity. Davis’s biography radically deepens our understanding of the movement’s potential and its limits, a message with surprising resonance today. This is essential reading for anyone who cares about Transcendentalism, the poetry of faith and doubt, or the place of Christian mysticism at the heart of America’s longing for a better world.” * Laura Dassow Walls, author of "Henry David Thoreau: A Life" *“Massively well researched and well argued, God’s Scrivener benefits from Clark Davis’s informed attention to a trove of documents not available fifty-six years ago when the last biography of Jones Very was published. By showing how the life, times, and works illuminate each other, Davis restores to us an author once considered one of the best sonnet writers in the language. Even as he establishes Very’s historical importance, Davis clearly explores both the strengths and dangers of his example.” * Robert Daly, author of "God’s Altar: The World and the Flesh in Puritan Poetry" *“Jones Very has been the lost Transcendentalist for decades, but Clark Davis has recovered him as a superb poet and penetrating spiritual mind in his remarkable God’s Scrivener. This is the story of a moving and enlightening life, artfully told.” * David M. Robinson, author of "Natural Life: Thoreau’s Worldly Transcendentalism" *“God’s Scrivener, the first biography of the enigmatic and fascinating Transcendentalist poet Jones Very in more than half a century, is a masterful revaluation of both Very’s life and work. Davis’s careful analysis of Very’s sometimes ecstatic poetry and surviving accounts of his unconventional behavior help to make sense of Very’s state of mind during the period when he came to public attention in the intellectual, religious, and literary circles of Salem and the greater Boston area. Mining the poet’s neglected ‘commonplace books’ to great effect, Davis builds the most complete picture yet of the poet’s intellectual and spiritual development in his formative years.” * Helen R. Deese, editor, "Jones Very: The Complete Poems" *Table of ContentsList of Figures Introduction Prologue: 1823 I. “There is something very strange in it all” 1. Cousins 2. Federal Street 3. Eldest Son 4. Biography (I) 5. Cornelia Africana 6. Biography (II) 7. A Student’s Notes, 1833–34 8. A Poet’s Notes, 1834 9. Early Poems, 1833–35 10. The Uses of Faith, 1835 11. “Change of heart” 12. Scrapbook, 1835–36 13. Lamartine 14. Poems, 1835–36 15. “The Torn Flower” 16. Spiritual Freedom II. “Flee to the mountains!” 17. “Part or particle of God,” 1836 18. The Messianic Moment 19. Mr. Tutor Very 20. Temptation and Peace 21. “My heart in life’s winter” 22. The White Mountains, 1837 23. Arrival 24. “Beauty” 25. Concord 26. Miracles 27. “Newborn bard of the Holy Ghost” 28. “The end of all things” 29. Madness III. God’s Scrivener 30. Prince Hamlet 31. Asylum 32. “In obedience to the Spirit” 33. “Pierced through with many spears” 34. “Insane with God” 35. “Epistles to the Unborn” 36. “Between Very & the Americans” 37. Essays and Poems by Jones Very 38. Madness and Meaning 39. “True relations . . . in a false age” IV. Man of Peace 40. Nonresistance 41. “Heaven is a state and not a place” 42. War, Slavery, and Intemperance 43. “I war not, nor wrestle with the earthly man” 44. “But still the poet midst the tumult sings” 45. Knowledge and Truth 46. “The presence of things invisible” 47. “The Book of Life” Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Notes A Note on Sources Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA groundbreaking reassessment of W. H. Auden's early life and poetry, shedding new light on his artistic development as well as on his shifting beliefs about political belonging in interwar England.W. H. Auden is a towering figure in modern literary history with a complex private self. Hannah Arendt wrote that he had the necessary secretiveness of the great poet'. The Island lays bare for the first time some of the most telling secrets' of Auden's early poetry, his world, his emotional life, his values and the sources of his art.In a book that is an argument but also a story, Nicholas Jenkins gives compelling readings of iconic poems. He presents Auden in the inter-War years as both a visionary writer, creatively dependent on dreams and intuitions, and a traumatized poet, haunted by war and suffering, and shadowed by his outsider status as a privileged but queer man.The Island considers, as well, Auden's imaginative flirtations with a lyrical n

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