Literary studies: poetry and poets Books

Book SynopsisA Daily Telegraph, Times, Evening Standard, TLS and Spectator Book of the Year.Winner of the Hawthornden Prize.Edward Lear is well-loved for his nonsenses', from joyous limericks to great love songs, and for his wonderful natural history paintings, landscapes and travel writing. But although Lear belongs to the age of Darwin and Dickens, his genius for the absurd and his dazzling word-play make him a very modern spirit. He was also a man of great simplicity and charm children loved him yet his humour masked epilepsy, depression and loneliness. Jenny Uglow's beautifully illustrated biography brings us his swooping moods, passionate friendships and restless travels. Above all it shows how this uniquely gifted man lived all his life on the boundaries of disciplines and desires an exile of the heart.

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Book SynopsisUsing side-by-side pairings of first drafts and final versions, including full-page reproductions from the poets' personal notebooks, as well as an insightful essay on each poem's journey from start to finish, The Art of Revising Poetry tracks the creative process of twenty-one of the United States' most influential poets as they struggle over a single word, line break, or thought. This behind-the-scenes look into the creative minds of working poets, including African American, Latino, Asian American, and Native poets from across the US, is an essential resource for students practicing poetry, and for instructors looking to enliven the classroom with real world examples. Students learn first-hand from the deft revisions working poets make, while poetry teachers can show in detail how experienced poets self-edit, tinker, cut, rearrange, and craft a poem. The Art of Revising Poetry is a must-have for aspiring poets and poetry teachers at all levels.Trade ReviewThe Art of Revising Poetry is excellent, rigorous, useful, diverse, and entertaining by turns. Content and style are of the highest caliber. There is no question that this book is a compelling addition to anthologies of writing in contemporary US poetry and poetics, demystifying and diversifying ideas about the all-too-important process and method of revision. This is a wonderful companion and ally for engaged writers and readers in the academy and beyond. * Dr Heather Yeung, Lecturer in English Literature and Creative Writing, University of Dundee, UK *Table of ContentsPoet Biographies Introduction: Charles Finn & Kim Stafford. SECTION I: "I riffed, following the language where it led" Chapter 1: Bedtime Story, Joe Wilkins, Linfield University, USA. First Draft: "My Son Asks for the Story About When We Were Birds" Final Draft: "My Son Asks for the Story About When We Were Birds" Essay: Finding the Language, Finding Story: Revising "My Son Asks for the Story About When We Were Birds" Chapter 2: When Thought's Slope Steepens, Jane Hirshfield, Author and Poet. First Draft: "Counting, New Year's Morning, What Powers Yet Remain to Me" Final Draft: "Counting, This New Year's Morning, What Powers Yet Remain to Me" Essay: Stepladder, Vinegar, Persimmons: Revising "Counting, This New Year's Morning, What Powers Yet Remain to Me" Chapter 3: Increasing The Stakes, CMarie Fuhrman, Western Colorado University, USA. First Draft: "Land Acknowledgment, Valley County, Idaho" Final Draft: "Land Acknowledgment, Valley County, Idaho" Essay: Rhythm, Repetition, and the Drumbeat of Poetry: Revising "Land Acknowledgment, Valley County, Idaho" Chapter 4: Researching The Mystery, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Author and Poet. Passage from First Draft: "River Run" Passage from Third Draft: "River Run" Essay: What it Took to Get Here: Revising "River Run" Chapter 5: Creating a More Beautiful Story, Sean Prentiss, Norwich University, USA. Intermediated Draft: "The Constellations of Slate Belt, Pennsylvania" (with notes) Final Draft: "The Constellations of Slate Belt, Pennsylvania" Essay: Without Myths or Constellations: Revising "The Constellations of Slate Belt, Pennsylvania" Section II: "My first draft was a word tornado" Chapter 6: Inheritance, Frank X Walker, University of Kentucky, USA. First Draft: "InHerit" Final Draft: "InHerit" Essay: Revisions in Life and Poetry, Revising "InHerit" Chapter 7: A Matter of Inquiry, Rose McLarney, Auburn University, USA. First Draft: "The Collectors of Local Minerals Are Likelier to Find What They Seek" Final Draft: "The Collectors of Local Minerals Are Likelier to Find What They Seek" Essay: Identifying Gems: Revising "The Collectors of Local Minerals Are Likelier to Find What They Seek" Chapter 8: Gift From an Older Self, Naomi Shihab Nye, Texas State University, USA. Final Draft: "Tears, Appropriate" Essay: Gravity Changes: Revising "Tears, Appropriate" Chapter 9: A Poem's Truest Expression, Yona Harvey, University of Pittsburgh, USA. First Draft: "Hickory Street, New Orleans" Final Draft: "Hickory Street, New Orleans" Essay: True Expression as the Last Trolley Stop: Revising "Hickory Street, New Orleans" Chapter 10: An Inward Dissection, Terry Tempest Williams, Harvard Divinity School, USA. Original Prose Paragraph: "When Women Were Birds" Revision Into Poetry: "When Women Were Birds" Essay: Once Upon A Time: Revising "When Women Were Birds" SECTION III: "It felt clunky, false, but I knew I was close" Chapter 11: To See Again, Paulann Petersen, Stanford University, USA. Intermediate Draft: "A Furrier's Grandchild" Final Draft: "A Furrier's Grandchild" Essay: I Hear the Poem Speak For Itself: Revising "A Furrier's Grandchild" Chapter 12: Radiant Associations, Philip Metres, John Carroll University, USA. First Draft: "Ashberries: Letters" Final Draft: "Ashberries: Letters" Essay: Letters I Must Wait to Open: Revising "Ashberries: Letters" Chapter 13: An Act of Faith, Abayomi Animashaun, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, USA. First Draft: "Exodus" Final Draft: "Exodus" Essay: Discipline and Unknowing: Revising "Exodus" Chapter 14: Removing Details, Tami Haaland, Montana State University Billings, USA. First Draft: "Deer on Crazy Creek" Final Draft "Deer on Crazy Creek" Essay: Making the Local Exact: Revising "Deer on Crazy Creek" Chapter 15: Forging Something New, Charles Finn, Author and Poet. First Draft: "Memory's Anvil" Final Draft: "Memory's Anvil" Essay: The Winch of Imagination: Revising "Memory's Anvil" Chapter 16: Maintaining Fidelity, Shin Yu Pai, Author and Poet. First Draft: "Empty Zendo" Final Draft: "Empty Zendo" Essay: Emptying the Zendo: Revising "Empty Zendo" SECTION IV: "I asked my dreams." Chapter 17: What's at Stake, Kim Stafford, Lewis & Clark College, USA. Final Draft: "Lost in Snow" Essay: Getting More Intimate with Pain: Revising "Lost in Snow" Chapter 18: Zeroing in on Intent, Prageeta Sharma, Pomona College, USA. First Draft: "The Witness" Final Draft: "The Witness" Essay: The Poem's Psychic Center: Revising "The Witness" Chapter 19: In Thick Darkness we Listen, Shann Ray, Gonzaga University, USA. First Draft: "God of my abandonment" Final Draft: "God of my abandonment" Essay: Obscuring a Formidable Power: Revising "God of my abandonment" Chapter 20: The Serpentine Path, Todd Davis, Pennsylvania State University, USA. First Draft: "Tributary" Final Draft: "Tributary" Essay: Following a Tributary to Find a Poem: Revising "Tributary" Chapter 21: Dreaming Poetry, Beth Piatote, University of California, Berkeley, USA. First Draft: "Because our Roots are in Rivers, Not Latin" Final Draft: "Because our Roots are in Rivers, Not Latin" Essay: How Not to Write A Sonnet: Revising "Because our Roots are in Rivers, Not Latin" Index

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Book SynopsisThe perfect introduction to one of the most influential American poets - includes the controversial 'Leaves of Grass'

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Book Synopsis Shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year 2020''A thought-provoking treatise interwoven with blistered-feet-on-the-ground accounts of spots both pretty and gritty'' National Geographic''Compelling, thought-provoking, and courageous, this epic-poetic journey peels back layers of collective emotional and imaginative inheritance. Jubber gets under the skin of our complicated continent and his timing is dead right'' Kapka Kassabova''A genuine epic'' Wanderlust''The prose is colourful and vigorous...Jubber''s journeying has indeed been epic, in scale and ambition. In this thoughtful travelogue he has woven together colourful ancient and modern threads into a European tapestry that combines the sombre and the sparkling'' Spectator''Epic Continent sets out on a physical and mythological journey to uncover what it means to be European'Trade ReviewA fascinating, page-turning exploration of the stories, identity and the root of the European self. A must read for anyone interested in where we come from and where we may be going -- Jason WebsterCompelling, thought-provoking, and courageous, this epic-poetic journey peels back layers of collective emotional and imaginative inheritance. Jubber gets under the skin of our complicated continent and his timing is dead right * Kapka Kassabova *In the great literary tradition of writers like Jan Morris and Patrick Leigh Fermour, Jubber has a deep knowledge of the epics whose narratives and journeys he follows * The New European *An original and thoroughly absorbing book by a travel writer of immense ability * The New European *Epic continent is an Odyssey on its own, which travels both in space and time . . . Nick Jubber gets to the old heart of a still-troubled continent * Professor Tom Shippey *Brings out the many ironies of literary and political history ... and show[s] that the past is still with us all * TLS *A timely study of how epic can sadly harden frontiers and justify violence, while retaining the more hopeful possibility of re-invention to prompt dialogue and shape new communities of song -- Peter Davidson * author of The Idea of the North *Epic Continent sets out on a physical and mythological journey to uncover what it means to be European * Geographical *Compelling, thought-provoking, and courageous, this epic-poetic journey peels back layers of collective emotional and imaginative inheritance. Jubber gets under the skin of our complicated continent and his timing is dead right * Kapka Kassabova *

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Book SynopsisWinner of the Elma Dangerfield Prize 2018Byron in Italy – Venetian debauchery, Roman sight-seeing, revolution, horse-riding and swimming, sword-brandishing and pistol-shooting, the poet’s ‘last attachment’ – forms part of the fabric of Romantic mythology. Yet Byron’s time in Italy was crucial to his development as a writer, to Italy’s sense of itself as a nation, to Europe’s perceptions of national identity and to the evolution of Romanticism across Europe. In this volume, Byron scholars from Britain, Europe and beyond re-assess the topic of ‘Byron and Italy’ in all its richness and complexity. They consider Byron’s relationship to Italian literature, people, geography, art, religion and politics, and discuss his navigations between British and Italian identities.Trade Review‘Byron and Italy is a most welcome contribution in the field which offers fresh approaches on current debates and opens new investigative paths by posing searching, original, and timely questions.’ Maria Schoina , Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, The BARS Review, no. 51, Spring 2018 -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction – Alan Rawes and Diego Saglia1 The literature of Italy in Byron’s poems of 1817–20 – Nicholas Halmi2 Byron’s ethnographic eye: the poet among the Italians – Gioia Angeletti3 From Lord Nelvil to Dugald Dalgetty: Byron’s Scottish identity in Italy – Jonathan Gross4 The garden of the world: Byron and the geography of Italy – Mauro Pala5 ‘Something I have seen or think it possible to see’: Byron and Italian art in Ravenna – Jane Stabler6 ‘Something sensible to grasp at’: Byron and Italian Catholicism – Bernard Beatty7 The politics of the unities: tragedy and the Risorgimento in Byron and Manzoni – Arnold Anthony Schmidt8 Parisina, Mazeppa and Anglo-Italian displacement – Peter W. Graham9 This ‘still exhaustless mine’: De Staël, Goethe and Byron’s Roman lyricism – Alan Rawes10 Playing with history: Byron’s Italian dramas – Mirka Horová11 ‘Where shall I turn me?’ Italy and irony in Beppo and Don Juan – Diego SagliaIndex

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Book SynopsisA remarkably diverse treasury of literary celebrations, Books and Libraries is sure to take pride of place on the shelves of the book-obsessed. Books have long captured the imagination of readers everywhere, commanding their love, earning their veneration. For Emily Dickinson they are frigates that 'take us Lands away'; for Wordsworth they are 'a substantial world, both pure and good'; Alberto Rios calls them 'the deli offerings of civilization itself'. This affection extends to the hallowed gathering places of the written word: libraries where one can best hear "a choir of authors murmuring inside their books," as Billy Collins has it; bookshops, especially second-hand ones, 'too small for the worlds they hold, where words that sing you to sleep, stories that stalk your dreams, open like windows in a wall' (Gillian Clarke). The poets collected here include Catullus, Horace, T'ao Ch'ien, Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Ronsard, Lope de Vega, Shakespeare, Marvell, Blake, Pope and Keats; more recent luminaries include Brecht, Cavafy, Gabriela Mistral, Dylan Thomas, Iku Takenaka, Pablo Neruda, Wislawa Szymborska, Anne Stevenson, Maya Angelou, Derek Walcott, John Burnside and Ian McMillan.

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Book SynopsisA unique collection of interviews with contemporary poets at the height of their craft. How does a subconscious thought become an award-winning poem? Journalist, Rosanna McGlone, speaks to some of the country's leading poets to find out. Don Paterson, Sean O'Brien, Gillian Clarke, and many more, explore the development of a single poem from rough notes to a final version to provide invaluable insights for writers and poetry enthusiasts alike.Trade Review* "The Process of Poetry is a fantastic idea. Beautifully executed, this book will prove invaluable to poets, creative writing students, and anyone interested in the creative process." - Malika Booker

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Book SynopsisSecond Lieutenant Wilfred Owen was twenty-four years old when he was admitted to the newly established Craiglockhart War Hospital for treatment of shell shock. A nascent poet, trying to make sense of the terror he had witnessed, he read a collection of poems from a fellow officer, Siegfried Sassoon, and was impressed by his portrayal of the soldier’s plight. One month later, Sassoon himself arrived at Craiglockhart, having refused to return to the front after being wounded during battle.Over their months at Craiglockhart, each encouraged the other in their work, their personal reckonings with the morality of war, and their treatment. Therapy provided Owen, Sassoon, and their wardmates with insights that allowed them to express themselves better, and for the 28 months that Craiglockhart was in operation, it notably incubated the era’s most significant developments in both psychiatry and poetry.Soldiers Don’t Go Mad tells for the first time the story of the soldiers and doctors who struggled with the effects of industrial warfare on the psyche. As he investigates the roots of what we now know as PTSD, Glass brings historical bearing to how we must consider war’s ravaging effects on mental health, and the ways in which creative work helps us come to terms with even the darkest of times.Trade Review'A marvellous and very moving book' - Allan Massie, The Scotsman

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Book SynopsisAlongside a selection of photographs and Plath's own line-drawings, the editors masterfully contextualise what the pages disclose.This selection of early correspondence marks the key moments of Plath's adolescence, including childhood hobbies and high school boyfriends;

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Book SynopsisWhen Stevie Smith died in 1971 she was one of the twentieth-century''s most popular poets; many of her poems have been widely anthologised, and ''Not Waving but Drowning'' remains one of the nation''s favourite poems to this day.Satirical, mischievous, teasing, disarming, her characteristically lightning-fast changes in tone take readers from comedy to tragedy and back again, while her line drawings are by turns unsettling and beguiling. In this edition of her work, Smith scholar Will May collects together the illustrations and poems from her original published volumes for the first time, recording fascinating details about their provenance, and describing the various versions Smith presented both on stage and page. Including over 500 works from Smith''s 35-year career, The Collected Poems and Drawings of Stevie Smith is the essential edition of modern poetry''s most distinctive voice.Nobody heard him, the dead man,But still he lay moaning:I was muc

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Book SynopsisOne of a series designed to provide a new, accessible approach to the works of great poets and playwrights. Each text includes general notes on the text; discussion of themes, issues and context; and suggestions for further reading.

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Book SynopsisFirst published in 1960, The Singer of Tales remains the fundamental study of the distinctive techniques and aesthetics of oral epic poetry—from South Slavic epic songs to the Iliad, Odyssey, Beowulf, and beyond. This edition offers a corrected text and is supplemented by an open-access website with audio recordings.

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Book SynopsisGerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89) is now recognized as a major poet of striking originality. He is widely admired for his particularly vivid expression of feeling, from the religious ecstasy of `he Blessed Virgin'' to the torments of his loneliness and despair in `No Worst'', and for conveying with wonderful freshness his sense of natural beauty in such poems as `The Windhover'' and `Pied Beauty''. This selection, chosen from the award-winning Oxford Authors critical edition, includes all his major English poems and most of the larger fragments. The poems are supported with extensive notes and a useful introduction to Hopkins''s life and poetry. 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 SynopsisIn this series, a contemporary poet selects and introduces a poet of the past

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Book SynopsisErudite and entertaining in equal measure, Somewhere Becoming Rain is a love letter from the much-loved writer Clive James to one of the world’s most cherished poets: Philip Larkin.'This is the finest critic of his generation on the best poet of his lifetime' – The TimesClive James was a life-long admirer of the work of Philip Larkin. Somewhere Becoming Rain gathers all of James's writing on this towering literary figure of the twentieth century, together with extra material now published for the first time.The greatness of Larkin's poetry continues to be obscured by the opprobrium attaching to his personal life and his private opinions. James writes about Larkin's poems, his novels, his jazz and literary criticism; he also considers the two major biographies, Larkin's letters and even his portrayal on stage in order to chart the extreme and, he argues, largely misguided equivocations about Larkin's reputation in the years since his death.Through this joyous and perceptive book, Larkin's genius is delineated and celebrated. James argues that Larkin's poems, adored by discriminating readers for over half a century, could only have been the product of his reticent, diffident, flawed, and all-too-human personality.'A collection to savour two-fold – for the genius of Larkin and the playful erudition of James' – Financial TimesTrade ReviewFew contemporary critics display the passionate commitment to the idea of poetry, and to the idea of poetry's centrality to civilized life, that James does -- John Banville * New York Review of Books *To read a major critic on a major poet is one of the great pleasures. Clive James’s passion for the work of Philip Larkin, his intense scrutiny which reveals an extraordinary empathy makes Somewhere Becoming Rain: Collected Writings on Philip Larkin an outstanding book. -- Melvyn Bragg * New Statesman, Books of the Year 2019 *One of the most important and influential writers of our time -- Bryan Appleyard * Sunday Times *In Somewhere Becoming Rain, Clive James’s collected essays on the poetry of Philip Larkin, the brilliance of James’s analysis, his clear-sighted view of Larkin’s solitude and humanity, and the fragile friendship between the two recorded in the book’s final pages, provide a monument to human connection and isolation together. It’s a perfect example of the “almost instinct” Larkin managed to prove “almost true” (hedging his bets to the end) – that what will survive of us is love. -- Andrew Hunter Murray * Guardian *A collection of witty essays by a great critic about a great poet . . . What will survive of Larkin is the work, and this small book is a joyful immersion in it. This is the finest critic of his generation on the best poet of his lifetime * The Times *This slim collection of Clive James’ writings on Philip Larkin demonstrates both a life-long passion for the poet’s work and a deep critical endeavour to rehabilitate his reputation as one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. A collection to savour two-fold – for the genius of Larkin and the playful erudition of James -- Best Books of 2019 * Financial Times *This is a tribute to Larkin’s poems. James is good at reminding us why and how they were powerful, multivalent and memorable . . . He is also unusually observant. His parallels between Larkin and Montale are elucidating * TLS *[James] was what you might call a massive Philip Larkin fan. His specific fandom was feverish and absolute – and also, because he was Clive James, deeply considered and beautifully expressed . . . it’s a privilege to look back at Larkin – all of Larkin – through the prism of [James’s] appreciation * Atlantic *Perceptive . . . This volume also allows the reader to delight in James’s own prose, which surely rivals Larkin’s in the wit and insight stakes * The Crack *The late Clive James had much in common with Philip Larkin . . . In verse and prose, both blazed with wit and wrote scores of memorable lines . . . although their work was laced with sadness, few writers since have written with such beauty and gratitude about the world * Review 31 *

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Book SynopsisMarking the centenary of Yeats's Nobel Prize, a timely guide to the work of Ireland's national poet and the changing Ireland he lived through.

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Book SynopsisIn this electrifying and raw debut anthology, Maggie Nelson unpicks the everyday with the quick alchemy and precision of her later modern classics The Argonauts and Bluets. The poems of Shiner experiment with a variety of stylessyllabic verse, sonnets, macaronic translation, Zen poems, walking poemsto express love, bewilderment, grief, and beauty. This book, Nelson's first, heralded the arrival of a fully formed, virtuoso voice.

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Book SynopsisThe complete Cavafy poems including the unfinished works in a stunning new translation.From the acclaimed author of The Lost', a translation that scales new heights in modern poetic rendering. With a masterful eye for irony and an ear for the music of Cavafy's form, Daniel Mendelsohn's translation brings to English the poet who won acclaim from generations of writers, E.M. Forster and T.S. Eliot among them.Spanning the fall of Homeric heroes to the rise of the modern world, Cavafy's poetry collapses the spectra of time, geography and age into intimately personal elegies. Works such as Waiting for the Barbarians and Ithica, famed for their revival of the ancient worlds, continue to address the modern reader in terms of timeless relevance. Here they are accompanied by Cavafy's unfinished poems, translated into English for the first time. From a highly respected classicist and social essayist, Daniel Mendelsohn's edition is uniquely placed to become the fresh, definitive edition of CavaTrade Review’The poetry of Cavafy has been my spiritual food for many years now … Cavafy is a poet who never leaves you. He gets under your skin’ Louis de Bernieres ‘Magisterial … A brilliant scholar, a discerning critic and a generous person, Mendelsohn brings Cavafy alive’ Times ‘This beautifully produced book is as complete an edition as one can expect. Mendelsohn’s scholarship is formidable. No previous editor or translator has been so thorough’ Guardian ‘No-one seeking the fullest possible picture of the poet need go further than Daniel Mendelsohn's exhaustive edition of his work … Mendelsohn’s scholarship and sensitivity manage to persuade us that the poet’s love of history can combine with this more immediate nostalgia, so that in the best poems it’s impossible to separate the cerebral from the sensual’ Daily Telegraph ‘Daniel Mendelsohn has translated all of Cavafy’s poems, including the thirty ‘unfinished’ poems never before rendered in English. The results are extraordinary, and a whole galaxy orbits them’ New Yorker ‘This not only brings us closer to one of the great poets of the 20th century; it also reinvigorates our relationship to the English language … It is an event on the page. Mendelsohn’s Cavafy is itself a work of art’ New York Times Book Review

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Book SynopsisRoger McGough has written over fifty books for both adults and children. Much travelled and translated, he has won many awards including the freedom of the city of Liverpool and the CBE. He currently presents Poetry Please on Radio 4.Trade ReviewUnique ... worthily the 'people's poet Mail * Daily Mail *Delightfully self-deprecating autobiography ... his prose is lovely, considered, concise and frequently frivolous, but it never strays far from the poetry that is his natural environment and, essentially, his subject * The Independent on Sunday *A warm-hearted book about the extraordinary life of an extraordinary man. He may choose to depict himself as Mr Ordinary, but there is nothing at all ordinary about his energy or talent * Independent *

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Book SynopsisIn Pop Goes the Weasel, Albert Jack explores the strange and fascinating histories behind the nursery rhymes we thought we knew, showing that their real meanings are far from innocent.Who were Mary Quite Contrary and Georgie Porgie? How could Hey Diddle Diddle offer an essential astronomy lesson? And if Ring a Ring a Roses isn''t about catching the plague, then what is it really about? This ingenious book delves into the hidden meanings of the nursery rhymes and songs we all know so well and discovers all kinds of strange tales ranging from Viking raids to firewalking and from political rebellion to slaves being smuggled to freedom.From the grim true story behind ''Oranges and Lemons'' to the deadly secrets of Mary Quite Contrary''s garden, and from how Lucy Locket lost more than her pocket to why Humpty Dumpty wasn''t egg-shaped at all, Pop Goes the Weasel is a compendium of surprising stories you won''t be able to resist passing on to everyone Trade ReviewAn irresistible treasure-trove ... The way these gossipy little rhymes give us a snapshot of everyday life in centuries gone by is enchanting. You'll never look at nursery rhymes again in the same way * Daily Mirror *The history behind nursery rhymes is not only highly specific but often splendidly grim. This book is a reminder of the riches below the surface: characters, jokes, events and stories * The Times *

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Book SynopsisThe work of 21 poets is represented: including Rupert Brooke, Robert Graves, Ivor Gurney, Thomas Hardy, Charlotte Mew, Alice Meynell, Wilfred Owen, Herbert Read, Isaac Rosenberg, Siegfried Sassoon and Edward Thomas.

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Book SynopsisIn his work as a physician, Williams had learnt the skill of objective observation which he applied to his poetry, examining, as he said, ''the particular to discover the universal''. Marked by a vernacular American speech and direct observation of the landscape and people of his native New Jersey, his poetry explores the ''raw merging of American pastoral and urban squalor. Emotionally restrained but rich in sensory experience, the poems were written according to the guiding concept: ''no ideas but in things'' and those ''things'', a red wheelbarrow, a group of trees, a river, convey the local and the particular with a vivid intensity.

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Book SynopsisThis selection, chosen from the Oxford Authors critical edition, includes Wordsworth's finest verse, and a large sample of The Prelude, his extraordinary autobiographical poem in blank verse and the first truly great achievement of a new era in English poetry.Trade Reviewremarkable value ... introduction, notes and all * Oxford Times *

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Book SynopsisThis authoritative edition was originally published in the acclaimed Oxford Authors series under the general editorship of Frank Kermode. It brings together a unique combination of Coleridge's poetry and prose - all the major poems, complemented by important criticism, letters, and marginalia - to give the essence of his work and thinking.Table of Contents* INTRODUCTION * TEXTUAL NOTE * BIBLIOGRAPHY * CHRONOLOGY * EXPLANATORY NOTES *INDEX

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Book Synopsis`Yet each man kills the thing he loves, By each let this be heard, Some do it with a bitter look, Some with a flattering word, The coward does it with a kiss, The brave man with a sword!'' A powerful poem of universal guilt and a protest against capital punishment, The Ballad of Reading Gaol is Wilde''s best-known poem, yet it is quite unlike the rest of his poetry. At Oxford Wilde discarded the passion and politics of his mother''s Irish nationalistic anti-famine poetry and opted to follow an English Romantic tradition, paying tribute to Keats, Swinburne, and the Pre-Raphaelites. Admiration of French masters gradually led to his writing Impressionist, even decadent poems and his collection Poems (1881) brought accusations of obscenity and plagiarism as well as scathing reviews. Unabashed, Wilde revised and reprinted his final `Author''s Edition'' in 1892, by which time he was the successful author of fiction, criticism, and Lady Windermere''s Fan. This volume follows as closely as possible the chronological order of composition, highlighting autobiographical elements including the young Wilde''s conflicting attitudes to Greece and Rome, pagan and Christian, and his fluctuating attraction to Roman Catholicism. The Appendix shows Wilde''s original ordering, constructed with great care around a `musical'' arrangement of themes. The poems reveal unexpected aspects of a literary chameleon usually identified with sparkling wit and social comedy. 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.Table of ContentsTHE USUAL WC APPARATUS.

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Book SynopsisRilke's timeless letters about poetry, sensitive observation, and the complicated workings of the human heart.Trade Review"...I cannot think of a better book to put into the hands of any young would-be poet, as an inspirational guide to poetry and to surviving as a poet in a hostile world." Harry Fainlight, The Times

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Book SynopsisBasil Bunting's work was published haphazardly throughout most of his life, and in many cases he did not oversee publication. He also examines Bunting's use of sources (including Persian literature and classical mythology), and explores the Northumbrian roots of Bunting's poetic vocabulary and use of dialect.

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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 the most important poets in our literature.A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:Its loveliness increases; it will neverPass into nothingness; but still will keepA bower quiet for us, and a sleepFull of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.-- Endymion

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Book SynopsisYork Notes Advanced offer a fresh and accessible approach to English Literature. This market-leading series has been completely updated to meet the needs of today's A-level and undergraduate students. Written by established literature experts, York Notes Advanced intorduce students to more sophisticated analysis, a range of critical perspectives and wider contexts.Table of Contents Study methods Introduction to the poems Summaries with critical notes Themes and techniques Author biography Historical and literary background Modern and historical critical approaches Chronology Glossary of literary terms

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Book SynopsisYork Notes Advanced offer a fresh and accessible approach to English Literature. This market-leading series has been completely updated to meet the needs of today's A-level and undergraduate students. Written by established literature experts, York Notes Advanced intorduce students to more sophisticated analysis, a range of critical perspectives and wider contexts.Table of Contents Part 1: Introduction Part 2: The poems Part 3: Critical approachs Part 4: Critical history Part 5: Background Further Reading Literacy Terms

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisEasily adaptable as both an anthology and an insightful guide to reading and understanding Romantic Poetry, this text discusses the important elements in the works from poets such as Smith, Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey, Barbauld, Byron, Shelley, Hemans, Keats and Landon.Trade Review"This poetry anthology is impressive because of its carefully lucid headnotes and footnotes, its thematic contents lists and its textual reliability, all of which are a very high order." (BARS Bulletin & Review, July 2008) "The editors have a particular commitment to the role that an appreciation of poetic form can play in critical understanding, and it is on account of this formal detail that the anthology is so valuable. Introductory headnotes elucidate the subtleties of each poem's craft, while footnotes comment on line endings, rhyme patterns, and other features of the text. Some comments are so brilliantly incisive as to deserve separate publication, such as the account of the metre of Christabel: 'each line seems like a stealthy event' (p. 207). Without question, this is by far the best way that any reader could be introduced to these poets, and the anthology is careful not to suggest that an attention to poetic detail precludes other types of investigation. Understanding how a poem creates meaning, however, is the vital first step, and for this reason Romantic Poetry: An Annotated Anthology will doubtless be the standard teaching anthology for many years." Year's Work of English Studies (2010)Table of ContentsSelected Contents by Theme. List of Plates. Note on Texts and Editorial Method. Index of Themes. Chronology of Events and Poetic Landmarks. Introduction: Romantic Doubleness. Acknowledgements. Anna Laetitia Barbauld, neé Aikin (1743--1825). The Rights of Woman. Inscription for an Ice-House. To Mr. S. T. Coleridge. Charlotte Smith, neé Turner (1749--1806). Sonnet 1 ['The partial Muse, has from my earliest hours']. Sonnet VII. On the Departure of the Nightingale. Sonnet XII. Written on the Sea Shore. – October, 1784. Sonnet XXX. To the River Arun. Sonnet XXXII. To Melancholy. Sonnet XXXIX. To Night. Sonnet XLIV. Written in the Church-yard at Middleton in Sussex. William Blake (1757--1827). from Songs of Innocence and of Experience. (from Innocence). Introduction. The Ecchoing Green. The Lamb. The Little Black Boy. The Chimney Sweeper. Holy Thursday. Nurse’s Song. (from Experience). Introduction. The Clod and the Pebble. Holy Thursday. The Sick Rose. The Fly. The Tyger. Ah! Sun-flower. London. A Poison Tree. Visions of the Daughters of Albion. The First Book of Urizen. The Mental Traveller. The Crystal Cabinet. William Wordsworth (1770--1850). Lines written at a small distance from my House, and sent by my little Boy to the Person to whom they are addressed. Simon Lee, the old Huntsman, With an incident in which he was concerned. Anecdote for Fathers, Shewing how the practice of Lying may be taught. Lines written in early Spring. The Thorn. The Last of the Flock. The Idiot Boy. Expostulation and Reply. The Tables Turned; An Evening Scene, on the same subject. Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey, on revisiting the banks of the Wye during a Tour, July 13, 1798. The Ruined Cottage. Strange Fits of Passion I have Known. Song: 'She Dwelt among th'untrodden Ways'. A Slumber did my Spirit Seal. The Two April Mornings. The Fountain, A Conversation. Nutting. Michael, A Pastoral Poem. From The Prelude (1805), Book 1. Resolution and Independence. The World is Too Much With Us. Composed upon Westminster Bridge, Sept. 3, 1803. Ode (from 1815 entitled ‘Ode. Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood’). The Solitary Reaper. Elegiac Stanzas, Suggested by a Picture of Peele Castle in a Storm, Painted by Sir George Beaumont. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772--1834). The Eolian Harp. Composed at Clevedon, Somersetshire. Reflections on Having Left a Place of Retirement. This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison. Kubla Khan. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Christabel. Frost at Midnight. France: An Ode. The Nightingale: A Conversation Poem, April, 1798. The Pains of Sleep. Dejection: An Ode. George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788--1824). Stanzas to [Augusta]. [Epistle to Augusta]. Stanzas to the Po. Don Juan. The Dedication. Canto 1. Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792--1822). Alastor; or, The Spirit of Solitude. Hymn to Intellectual Beauty. Mont Blanc. Lines written in the Vale of Chamouni. Prometheus Unbound, Act I. Ode to the West Wind. Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats, Author of ‘Endymion’, ‘Hyperion’, etc. Felicia Hemans, née Browne (1793--1835). Properzia Rossi. The Homes of England. The Spirit’s Mysteries. The Graves of a Household. The Image in Lava. Casabianca. The Lost Pleiad. The Mirror in the Deserted Hall. John Keats (1795--1821). On First Looking into Chapman's Homer. The Eve of St Agnes. La Belle Dame Sans Merci. Ode to Psyche. If by dull rhymes our english must be chain’d. Ode to a Nightingale. Ode on a Grecian Urn. Ode on Melancholy. Ode on Indolence. To Autumn. Bright star, Would I Were Stedfast as thou art. Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.) (1802--38). Lines Written under a Picture of a Girl Burning a Love-Letter. A Child Screening a Dove from a Hawk. By Stewardson. Lines of Life. Felicia Hemans. Index of Titles and First Lines

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Book Synopsis"Crane's poetry has been a touchstone for me, and remains central to a fully imaginative understanding of American literature."—Harold Bloom

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Book SynopsisDiscover fully updated volumes of global poetry and short stories for use as set texts. Parts of Songs of Ourselves Volume 1 are set for study in Cambridge IGCSE, O Level and Cambridge International AS & A Level Literature in English syllabuses. The anthology includes work from over 100 poets, combining famous names ? such as William Wordsworth, Maya Angelou and Seamus Heaney ? with lesser-known voices. This helps students create fresh and interesting contrasts as they explore themes that range from love to death.

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Book SynopsisThousands of Greek verse epitaphs, covering a millennium of history, survive inscribed or painted on stone. These largely anonymous poems shed rich light on areas such as ancient moral values, religious ideas, gender relations and attitudes, as well as on the transmission and reception of ''canonical'' poetry; many of these poems are of very high literary quality. This is the first modern commentary on a selection of these poems. Problems of syntax, metre and language are fully explained, accompanied by sophisticated literary discussion of the poems. There is a full introduction to the nature of these poems and to their context within Greek ideas of death and the afterlife. This comprehensive edition will be of interest to advanced undergraduates and graduate students studying Greek literature, as well as to scholars.Trade Review'… it represents extremely good value, and is strongly recommended.' Colin Leach, Classics for AllTable of ContentsIntroduction: 1. Funerary verse-inscriptions; 2. The style of Greek epitaphic verse; 3. Who wrote Greek verse-inscriptions?; 4. Ideas of death in Greek verse-inscriptions; 5. About this edition; Source Text: Greek Epitaphic Poetry. A Selection; Editorial Matter: Commentary.

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Book SynopsisPacked full of analysis and interpretation, historical background, discussions and commentaries, York Notes will help you get right to the heart of the text you're studying, whether it's poetry, a play or a novel. You'll learn all about the historical context of the piece; find detailed discussions of key passages and characters; learn interesting facts about the text; and discover structures, patterns and themes that you may never have known existed. In the Advanced Notes, specific sections on critical thinking, and advice on how to read critically yourself, enable you to engage with the text in new and different ways. Full glossaries, self-test questions and suggested reading lists will help you fully prepare for your exam, while internet links and references to film, TV, theatre and the arts combine to fully immerse you in your chosen text. York Notes offer an exciting and accessible key to your text, enabling you to develop your ideas and transform your stuTable of Contents Part 1: Introduction Part 2: The poems Part 3: Critical approachs Part 4: Critical perspectives Part 5: Background Further Reading Literacy Terms

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Book Synopsis'Outstanding... The best short introduction I have come across' Sunday TimesWhen he died at the age of just twenty-five, few imagined John Keats would one day be considered among the greatest poets of all time.Taking nine of Keats's best-known poems, Lucasta Miller excavates their backstories and, in doing so, resurrects the real Keats: an outsider from a damaged family whose visceral love of language allowed him to change the face of English literature for ever.Combining close-up readings with the story of his brief existence, Miller shows us how Keats crafted his groundbreaking poetry and explains why it continues to speak to us across the centuries.'One never wants Keats's life to end so soon; I didn't want this book to end, either' TLS Books of the Year'Irresistible... [Miller]digs into the backstories of her subject's most famous poems to uncover aspects of his life and work that challenge well-worn romantic myths' Wall Street JournalTrade ReviewIn lucid, graceful prose she [Miller] manages to bring us closer to the life and work of a poet who never seemed that far away... I didn't want this book to end. * Times Literary Supplement, *Books of the Year* *An enlightening and perceptive introduction to (or reminder of) the great Romantic poet's life and work. * Financial Times *Outstanding... [Miller's] knowledge of all things Keatsian is formidable... For newcomers to Keats, Miller's is the best short introduction I have come across. -- John Carey * Sunday Times *Miller disrobes the myth, while helping us to appreciate what she calls Keats's "vertiginous originality". As a wittily perceptive introduction to (or reminder of) the poet and his work, her book is unlikely to be surpassed any time soon. -- Miranda Seymour * Financial Times *Lucasta Miller's task, which she carries out very successfully, is to strip away what we think when we think about Keats... This excellent book... enters an already crowded market of Keats biographies, but earns its place through its firm basis in precise reading. Miller is empathetic, and relishes Keats's best phrases. -- Philip Hensher * Spectator *

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Book SynopsisErich Auerbach’s Dante: Poet of the Secular World is an inspiring introduction to one of world’s greatest poets as well as a brilliantly argued and still provocative essay in the history of ideas. Here Auerbach, thought by many to be the greatest of twentieth-century scholar-critics, makes the seemingly paradoxical claim that it is in the poetry of Dante, supreme among religious poets, and above all in the stanzas of his Divine Comedy, that the secular world of the modern novel first took imaginative form. Auerbach’s study of Dante, a precursor and necessary complement to Mimesis, his magisterial overview of realism in Western literature, illuminates both the overall structure and the individual detail of Dante’s work, showing it to be an extraordinary synthesis of the sensuous and the conceptual, the particular and the universal, that redefined notions of human character and fate and opened the way into modernity.CONTENTSI. Historical Introduction; The Idea of Man in LiteratureII. Dante''s Early PoetryIII. The Subject of the 'Comedy'IV. The Structure of the 'Comedy'V. The PresentationVI. The Survival and Transformation of Dante''s Vision of RealityNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisA wonderfully stimulating collection of quizzes and puzzles based on the richly imaginative world of Thomas Hardy's six best-loved novels.

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Book SynopsisMany kinds of equine characters grace these pages, from magnificent war horses to cowboys' trusty steeds, from broken-down nags to playful colts, from wild horses to dream horses. We encounter the famous Trojan horse in Virgil's Aeneid, only to see it from a quite different perspective in Matthea Harvey's whimsical 'Inside the Good Idea'. Longfellow shows us Paul Revere defying an empire from the back of a horse, while Shakespeare's Richard III vainly offers his kingdom for one. Robert Burns's 'Auld Farmer' dotes affectionately on his ageing mare, while Paul Muldoon's 'Glaucus' is devoured by his fierce young fillies. Robert Frost's little horse stopping by the woods is gently puzzled by human behaviour, while Ted Hughes is dazzled by a stunning vision of horses at dawn, 'grey silent fragments/Of a grey silent world'.Mythical and metaphorical horses cavort alongside vividly real ones in these poems, whether they be humble servants, noble companions, beloved friends or emblems of the wild beauty of the world beyond our grasp.

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Book SynopsisThe pioneer of modern Russian literature, Alexander Pushkin has exerted - through his novel in verse Eugene Onegin, his plays, his short stories and his narrative poetry - a lasting influence well beyond the borders of his motherland. A slightly lesser-known, but by no means less important aspect of his writing is his vast production of shorter verse, a genre at which he excelled and arguably still remains unsurpassed. This volume, part of Alma's series of the complete poetic works of Alexander Pushkin, collects the poems Pushkin wrote in his mid-to-late twenties, during his exile in Mikhaylovskoye and his subsequent return to metropolitan life. It includes some of his lyrical masterpieces, such as 'To Anna Kern' and 'I Loved You...' - arguably the two most famous love poems in the Russian language - 'To the Sea', 'Andre Chenier', 'The Prophet', 'Stanzas Addressed to Nicholas I', 'Deep in Siberian Mines', 'Arion', 'An Angel', 'The Talisman', 'Remembrance', 'A Flower' and 'Anchar, Tree of Poison', each presented in a verse translation opposite the original Russian text. Enriched with notes, pictures and an appendix on Pushkin's life and works, this will be essential reading for anyone wishing to explore the Russian bard's genius.Trade ReviewPushkin is an extraordinary phenomenon, perhaps the only phenomenon of the Russian spirit. -- Nikolai Gogol

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Book SynopsisAlong with his contemporaries Edwin Morgan and Hugh MacDiarmid, Sorley MacLean is recognised as one of the most important Scottish poets of the twentieth century. Born at Oscaig on the island of Raasay in 1911, MacLean was greatly influenced by Gaelic tradition and by contemporary cultural and political ideas from around the world. In many ways he brought Scottish Gaelic poetry into the modern era, and he is a key figure in modern Scottish literature. MacLean''s poetry ranges beyond Scotland to confront European and world events and politics. This book offers a detailed study of MacLean''s poems, providing insight into the context of his work. It also includes close readings of selected poems that best represent his key themes and ideas. Emma Dymock''s SCOTNOTE study guide is ideal for senior school pupils and students of all ages as a general introduction or as a starting point for more in-depth study.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisIn her dedication Safia Elhillo writes, “The January Children are the generation born in Sudan under British occupation, where children were assigned birth years by height, all given the birth date January 1.” What follows is a deeply personal collection of poems that describe the experience of navigating the postcolonial world as a stranger in one's own land.Trade Review"A taut debut collection of heartfelt poems."—Publishers Weekly"Safia Elhillo's triumph is not that she sings about novel love and heartbreak, but that she does so in an unforgettable voice."—Irene Mathieu, Muzzle"Safia Elhillo’s The January Children offers the reader a galaxy of Sudanese voices engaging individual and collective memory in a manner that not only introduces readers to the nuances that animate that ancient land of layered diversity, which lends this collection a collage-like quality that is as sublime in its coherence as it is revelatory in its execution."—Post No Ills Magazine“The first sound of what will be a remarkable noise in African poetry. Safia Elhillo has already laid out in this collection a complex foundation for a rich and complex body of work. What is unmistakable is her authority as a poet—she writes with great control and economy, but also with a vulnerability that is deeply engaging. Above all, her poems are filled with delight—a quality of humor that is never trite but always honest and insightful.”—from the foreword by Kwame DawesTable of ContentsForeword by Kwame Dawes Acknowledgments asmarani makes prayer vocabulary Sudan Today. Nairobi: University of Africa, 1971. Print. to make use of water [did our mothers invent loneliness or . . . ] while being escorted from the abdelhalim hafez concert application for the position of abdelhalim hafez’s girl abdelhalim hafez asks for references talking with an accent about home origin stories a brief history of silence the last time marvin gaye was heard in the sudan first interview for the position of abdelhalim hafez’s girl the lovers talking with an accent about home first adornment callback interview for the position of abdelhalim hafez’s girl bride price old wives’ tales date night with abdelhalim hafez first quarantine with abdelhalim hafez self-portrait with dirty hair watching arab idol with abdelhalim hafez self-portrait with the question of race second date abdelhalim hafez wants to see other people red moon night self-portrait with yellow dress others alternate ending [& what is a country but the drawing . . . .] late-night phone call with abdelhalim hafez republic of the sudan / ministry of interior / passport & immigration general directorate / alien from sudanese origin passcard talking with an accent about home talking with an accent about home (second take) second quarantine with abdelhalim hafez portrait with asylum talking to boys about abdelhalim hafez at parties biopic containing lies about abdelhalim hafez asmarani does psychogeography why abdelhalim self-portrait with lake nasser abdelhalim hafez asks who the sudanese are the part i keep forgetting talking with an accent about home (reprise) third quarantine with abdelhalim hafez final interview for the position of abdelhalim hafez’s girl self-portrait as abdelhalim hafez’s girl portrait with abdelhalim hafez with the question of race lovers’ quarrel with abdelhalim hafez portrait of abdelhalim hafez as orpheus glossary everything i know about abdelhalim hafez notes

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