An Introduction. Novelists stake their claim as artists on works that encapsulate a whole world of characters and narrative across many, usually hundreds of pages. Some also take in other disciplines; plays, short stories, essays but many have also written poetry. For some it is even their first love but for their audience it is too often forgotten; relegated behind their longer works. Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, The Brontes, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy are but a few of our illustrious authors who here reveal works every bit as tender, as expansive and just as good as their longer forms of work. Each would make a fine poet in their own right. We're glad to be able to bring you another side to these incredible talents. Our readers include Richard Mitchley and Ghizela Rowe.
Westminster Memorials - Volume 1 - An introduction. Westminster Abbey has seen much during its long, rich history; the coronations of Kings and Queens, the burials of Prime ministers. However it is also a church that remembers the men and women of the arts. Dedicated writers and poets who spoke so eloquently that the Nation wished to remember them with plaques upon its walls so that all who travelled here could remember too. Their works are worth remembering and here, in these volumes, their wise words speak too and for us all. In Volume 1 we collect together Matthew Arnold to Lewis Carroll.
Westminster Memorials - Volume 2 - An introduction. Westminster Abbey has seen much during its long, rich history; the coronations of Kings and Queens, the burials of Prime ministers. However it is also a church that remembers the men and women of the arts. Dedicated writers and poets who spoke so eloquently that the Nation wished to remember them with plaques upon its walls so that all who travelled here could remember too. Their works are worth remembering and here, in these volumes, their wise words speak too and for us all. In Volume 2 we collect together John Clare to DH Lawrence.
Westminster Memorials - Volume 3 - An introduction. Westminster Abbey has seen much during its long, rich history; the coronations of Kings and Queens, the burials of Prime ministers. However it is also a church that remembers the men and women of the arts. Dedicated writers and poets who spoke so eloquently that the Nation wished to remember them with plaques upon its walls so that all who travelled here could remember too. Their works are worth remembering and here, in these volumes, their wise words speak too and for us all. In Volume 3 we collect together Edward Lear to William Wordsworth.
The Poetry Of Flowers - An Introduction. The simple beauty of a single flower has the power to fascinate, captivate and delight us. Its fragrance can intoxicate and it remains a wonderful gift to give or receive. The vast varieties of flowers that exist provide an exceptional burst of vivid and subtle shades of colours inspiring a smooth transition from petal to paper for so many of our greatest poets including Wordsworth, Tennyson, Burns, Swinburne and Coleridge. Among our readers are Richard Mitchley and Ghizela Rowe.
The Poetry Of Trees. Although there is no definitive definition we all know what they are. At their most magisterial they can reach hundreds of feet into the air and be thousands of years old. But for many the visual structure they bring to our landscape in all their various heights and colours; their contribution to the seasons - stark branches, vivid leaves at birth and death is how we relate to them. For the poets here in this collection trees are a source of inspiration and give us much to contemplate.
Letitia Elizabeth Landon was born on 14 August 1802 in Chelsea, London. A precocious child she had her first poem published is 1820 using the single 'L' as her marker. The following year her first volume appeared and sold well. She published a further two poems that same year with just the initials 'L.E.L." It provided the basis for much intrigue. She became the chief reviewer of the Gazette and published her second collection, The Improvisatrice, in 1824. By 1826, rumours began to circulate that she had had affairs. For several years they continued to circulate until she broke off an engagement when her betrothed, upon further investigation, found them to be unfounded. Her words reflect the lack of trust she felt "The mere suspicion is dreadful as death". On June 7th 1838 she married George Maclean, initially in secret, and a month later they sailed to Cape Coast. However the marriage proved to be short lived as on October 15th Letitia was found dead, a bottle of prussic acid in her hand. Her reputation as a poet diminished until fairly recently; her work felt to be simplistic and too simply constructed. However when put into context it is more rightly seen as working on many levels and meanings as was needed for those more moral times.
With classics such as 'My Last Duchess' and 'The Pied Piper Of Hamelin' Robert Browning's status as one of the great Victorian Poets will always be secure in popular culture. For the more literary he is considered a master of dramatic verse and dramatic monologues. It is interesting to note that his career bloomed late. Indeed it was only after the death of his wife Elizabeth in 1861 and his return to England from their life in Italy that his work came into wider acceptance and critical acclaim. In the last years of his life he recorded part of a poem on a wax cylinder which was played after his death. It was said to be the first time anyone's voice had been heard from beyond the grave!
On a summer's day we have perhaps all wish to take flight and view life and the world from the vantage point of a clear blue sky. Our feathered friends do it as a matter of course and in this volume some of our finest wordsmith's speak with imagination, longing and desire on their behalf.
'If music be the food of love play on.' The evocative words of William Shakespeare not only capture the addictive quality of love but also of music. Poets have an ability with their words and phrases to provide a rhythm, an atmosphere. When this is allied to their musings on music we are captivated.
On first thought an Ode should be simple to describe, to define. A definition would most probably put it as; a lyric poem, usually addressed to a particular subject, with lines of varying lengths and complex rhythm. And within that, of course, we have its depth, beauty and poetic form. It's evolvement over time and through the minds of our revered poets continues so perhaps the best description would be the Odes themselves.
Samuel Johnson wrote in reference to the beginning of the seventeenth century that there "appeared a race of writers that may be termed the metaphysical poets". Widely regarded in the years since as a distinct Poetical movement it is interesting to note that from what we now know the Metaphysical poets did not, in the main, read or know one another. Samuel Johnson was not an admirer of the group as he decried their distinct lack of the decorum of the day and stylistic impurity but the poems here testify that it bands together a wonderful group of poets and their poems in an inspiring and thought provoking volume.
