B>''Into the jaw of Death Into the mouth of Hell Rode the six hundred'' br>/b>br>As Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria''s reign, Alfred Lord Tennyson''s spellbinding poetry epitomized the Victorian age. The works in this volume trace nearly sixty years of his literary careerand show the wide variety of poetic forms he mastered. This selection gives some of Tennyson''s most famous works in full, including Maud, depicting a tragic love affair, and In Memoriam, a profound tribute to his dearest friend. Excerpts from Idylls of the King show a lifelong passion for Arthurian legend, also seen in the dream-like The Lady of Shalot and in Morte d''Arthur. Other works respond to contemporary events, such as Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington, written in Tennyson''s official role as Poet Laureate, or the patriotic Charge of the Light Brigade, while Locksley Hall provides a Utopian vision of the future, and the late poem Crossing the Bar is a haunting meditation on his own mortality. br>br>Selected Poems is edited with an introduction and notes by Christopher Ricks. In his introduction, Ricks discusses aspects of Tennyson''s life and works, his revisions of his poems, and his friendship with Arthur Hallam. This edition also includes a chronology, further reading and notes. br>br>For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
'Shall I embrace you, must I let you go? Again you haunt me: come then, hold me fast!' Goethe viewed the writing of poetry as essentially autobiographical and the works selected in this volume represent over sixty years in the life of the poet. In early poems such as 'Prometheus' he rails against religion in an almost ecstatic fervour, while 'To the Moon' is an enigmatic meditation on the end of a love affair. The Roman Elegies show Goethe's use of Classical metres in homage to abcient Rome and its poets, and 'The Diary' , supressed for more than a century, is a narrative poem whose eroticism is unusually combined with its morality.
Arranged chronologically, David Luke's verse translations are set alonjgside the German orginals to give a picture of Goethe's poetic development. This edition also includes an introduction and notes placing the poems in the context of the poet's life and times.
Writing obsessively in French, English, and Portuguese, Fernando Pessoa left a prodigious body of work, much of it under "heteronyms"--fully fleshed alter egos with startlingly different styles and points of view. Offering a unique sampling of all his most famous voices, this collection features poems that have never before been translated alongside many originally composed in English. In addition to such major works as "Maritime Ode of Campos" and his Goethe-inspired Faust, written in blank verse, there are several stunning poems that have only come to light in the last five years. Selected and translated by leading Pessoa scholar Richard Zenith, this is the finest introduction available to the breadth of Pessoas genius.
The translations are based on the most authoritative editions, verified against the original manuscripts Includes an Introduction discussing Pessoa, his work, and the phenomenon of "heteronymy" as well as a chronology
Twenty-four important works, focusing on Wilde's poetic legacy, offer important clues to themes and subjects that preoccupied this gifted writer in other works. Includes The Ballad of Reading Gaol, a powerful indictment of the degradation and inhumanity of prison life; "The Sphinx," "The Grave of Keats," "The Harlot's House," "To L. L." and 19 others.
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) is often regarded as the unofficial Laureate of the British Empire. This selection of his poetry shows the development of Kipling's talent, his deepening maturity, and the growing sombreness of his poetic vision. It ranges from "Mandalay" and "Gunga Din", to "If" and "Epitaphs of the War".
George Herbert combined the intellectual and the spiritual, the humble and the divine, to create some of the most moving devotional poetry in the English language. His deceptively simple verse uses the ingenious arguments typical of seventeenth-century 'metaphysical' poets, and unusual imagery drawn from musical structures, the natural world and domestic activity to explore a mosaic of Biblical themes. From the wit and wordplay of 'The Pulley' and the formal experimentation of 'Easter Wings' and 'Paradise', to the intense, highly personal relationship between man and God portrayed in 'The Collar' and 'Redemption', the works collected here show the transcendental power of divine love.
