Dazzling in its prosodic innovations such as the sprung rhythm he pioneered & wide-ranging in its complexity & metaphysical interest. The Penguin Classics" edition of Gerard Manley Hopkins " Poems & Prose" is selected & edited with an introduction by W.H. Gardner. Closer to Dylan Thomas than Matthew Arnold in his creative violence & insistence on the sound of poetry Gerard Manley Hopkins was no staid conventional Victorian. On entering the Jesuit order the age of twenty-four he burnt all his poetry & resolved to write no more as not belonging to my profession unless by the wishes of my superiors. The poems letters & journal entries selected for this edition were written in the following twenty years of his life & published posthumously in 1918. His verse is wrought from the creative tensions & paradoxes of a poet-priest who wanted to evoke the spiritual essence of nature sensuously & to communicate this revelation in natural language & speech-rhythms while using condensed innovative diction & all the skills of poetic artifice. Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89) was born in Essex the eldest son of a prosperous middle-class family. He was educated at Highgate School & Balliol College Oxford where he read Classics & began his lifelong friendship with Robert Bridges. In 1866 he entered the Roman Catholic Church & two years later he became a member of the Society of Jesus. In 1877 he was ordained & was priest in a number of parishes including a slum district in Liverpool. From 1882 to 1884 he taught at Stonyhurst College & in 1884 he became Classics Professor at University College Dublin. In his lifetime Hopkins was hardly known as a poet except to one or two friends; his poems were not published until 1918 in a volume edited by Robert Bridges. If you enjoyed Hopkins " Poems & Prose" you might like John Clares " Selected Poems" also available in " Penguin Classics"." ...

As more & more secular funerals are taking place there is a need for appropriate texts. The Poet Laureate spoke recently of the importance of epitaphs for people: poems or songs which commemorate their lives. Actress Julia Watson married to the poet David Harsent was confronted with the issue when her father died & the result is this inspiring collection of 70 poems & prose extracts suitable for reading at funerals & celebrations of a life. The selections range from Shakespeare to Chief Tecumseh of the Shawnee Nation from Christina Rossetti to St Francis of Assissi & included are some very short pieces which could be printed on an order of service. ...

Shakespeares sonnets have an intensity of both feeling & meaning unmatched in English sonnet form. They divide into two parts; the first 126 sonnets are addressed to a fair youth for whom the poet has an obsessive love & the second chronicles his love for the notorious Dark Lady. In addition to the sonnets this volume

Includes:: Shakespeares two lengthy narrative poems on classical themes The Rape of Lucrece which looks forward to the dark imagery of Macbeth & Venus & Adonis which mixes ribaldry & tragedy in unique Shakespearean manner. The Phoenix & the Turtle is a beautiful metaphysical & allegorical short elegy & takes its place with Shakespeares better-known poetry.

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Take Note for Exam Success! York Notes offer an exciting approach to English literature. This market leading series fully reflects student needs. They are packed with summaries commentaries exam advice margin & textual features to offer a wider context to the text & encourage a critical analysis. York Notes The Ultimate Literature Guides. ...

The book represent a genuine & important discovery in the canon of Betjemans poems often considered closed with the publication of the Complete Poems". Between 1953-57 John Betjeman read a series of poems on " The Faith in the West" program airing on the BBCs West of England Home Service. This series called " Poems in the Porch" was so popular that Betjeman received constant requests to publish the poems. Although he deprecatingly referred to the poems as mere verses Betjeman at last capitulated to the public. The result was a slim volume of six poems entitled Poems in the Porch. What few people now realize is that Betjeman read at least 20 original poems on the radio in this series perhaps even more although owing to the haphazard records of both the BBC & Betjeman himself it is impossible to reconstruct with complete accuracy the history of this series. Kevin Gardner has been able to identify & collect 26 of these poems & has written a fascinating introductory essay recounting the story of Betjeman as a radio poet & discussing the artistry of these poems. Most have never been published & currently exist only in manuscript. Despite the gap between the BBC records on the one hand & the printed & manuscript texts on the other Gardner has been able to construct a relatively reliable edition of " Betjemans Poems in the Porch"." ...

York Notes Advanced offer a fresh & accessible approach to English Literature. This market-leading series has been completely updated to meet the needs of today's A-level & undergraduate students. Written by established literature experts York Notes Advanced intorduce students to more sophisticated analysis a range of critical perspectives & wider contexts. ...

Published to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of Armistice this collection is intended to be an introduction to the great wealth of First World War Poetry. The sequence of poems is random
- making it ideal for dipping into
- & drawn from a number of sources mixing both well-known & less familiar poetry.

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In his draft Preface Wilfred Owen

Includes:: his well-known statement My subject is War & the pity of War.

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This beautiful new edition of Poems on the Underground" is published to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Underground in 2013. Here 230 poems old & new romantic comic & sublime explore such diverse topics as love London exile families dreams war music & the seasons & feature poets from Sappho to Carol Ann Duffy & Wendy Cope including Chaucer & Shakespeare Milton Blake & Shelley Whitman & Dickinson Yeats & Auden Seamus Heaney & Derek Walcott & a host of younger poets. It

Includes:: a new foreword & over two dozen poems not included in previous anthologies."

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The apparent suicide of his policeman brother sets Denver crime reporter Jack Mc Evoy on edge. Surprise at the circumstances of his brothers death prompts Jack to look into a whole series of police suicides & puts him on the trail of a cop-killer whose victims are selected all too carefully. Not only that but they all leave suicide notes drawn from the poems of writer Edgar Allan Poe in their wake. More frightening still the killer appears to know that Jack is getting nearer & nearer. An investigation that looks like being the story of a lifetime might also be Jacks ticket to a lonely end. ...