The Oxford Book of English Verse

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Christopher Ricks (Warren Professor of the Humanities, Warren Professor of the Humanities, Boston University)

The Oxford Book of English Verse

Christopher Ricks (Warren Professor of the Humanities, Warren Professor of the Humanities, Boston University)

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English

Oxford University Press
01 December 1999

Poetry

Here is a treasure-house of over seven centuries of English poetry, chosen and introduced by Christopher Ricks, whom Auden described as 'exactly the kind of critic every poet dreams of finding'. The Oxford Book of English Verse, created in 1900 by Arthur Quiller-Couch and selected anew in 1972 by Helen Gardner, has established itself as the foremost anthology of English poetry: ample in span, liberal in the kinds of poetry presented. This completely fresh selection brings in new poems and poets from all ages, and extends the range by another half-century, to include many twentieth-century figures not featured before -- among them Philip Larkin and Samuel Beckett, Thom Gunn and Elaine Feinstein -- right up to Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney.

Here, as before, are lyric (beginning with medieval song), satire, hymn, ode, sonnet, elegy, ballad . . . but also kinds of poetry not previously admitted: the riches of dramatic verse by Marlowe, Shakespeare, Jonson, Webster; great works of translation that are themselves true English poetry, such as Chapman's Homer (bringing in its happy wake Keats's 'On First Looking into Chapman's Homer'), Dryden's Juvenal, and many others; well-loved nursery rhymes, limericks, even clerihews. English poetry from all parts of the British Isles is firmly represented -- Henryson and MacDiarmid, for example, now join Dunbar and Burns from Scotland; James Henry, Austin Clarke, and J. M. Synge now join Allingham and Yeats from Ireland; R. S. Thomas joins Dylan Thomas from Wales -- and Edward Taylor and Anne Bradstreet, writing in America before its independence in the 1770s, are given a rightful and rewarding place. Some of the greatest long poems are here in their entirety -- Wordsworth's 'Tintern Abbey', Coleridge's 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner', and Christina Rossetti's 'Goblin Market' -- alongside some of the shortest, haikus, squibs, and epigrams.

Generous and wide-ranging, mixing familiar with fresh delights, this is an anthology to move and delight all who find themselves loving English verse.

Edited by: Christopher Ricks (Warren Professor of the Humanities Warren Professor of the Humanities Boston University)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 224mm, Width: 147mm, Spine: 39mm
Weight: 1g
ISBN: 9780192141828
ISBN 10: 0192141821
Pages: 742
Publication Date: 01 December 1999
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Reviews for The Oxford Book of English Verse

The Rolls Royce of English poetry anthologies, updated through a new selection by one of the most respected English Literature critics, this book has the twin virtues of authority and longevity - years after purchase a reader could be expected to make new discoveries here. Although the print is rather small for protracted reading, this is a minor cavil. From Gower to Heaney, the glorious trajectory of English verse is laid before us in a range of opportune landfalls for the poetic voyager unafraid of literary seriousness. (Kirkus UK)