Bücher der Reihe British Poets

EDMUND SPENSER VISIONS OF PETRARCH AND BELLAY: EARLY SONNETS Translations by Edmund Spenser, one of the great Elizabethan poets, of poems by Joachim du Bellay and Francesco Petrarch. Beautiful poetry, poems of love, full of Spenser's delicate and intricate way with words, and important early translations of Petrarch and Bellay into English. Includes an introduction to the poetry of Edmund Spenser. Bibliography and notes. www.crmoon.com

ROBERT HERRICK: SELECTED POEMS ROBERT HERRICK (1591-1674) was one of the Cavalier poets (other Cavalier poets included Suckling, Carew and Lovelace). He was born in London and lived much of his life in the rough remoteness of a parish in Devonshire. He studied at Cambridge (St John¿s College and Trinity Hall). His law studies were dropped in 1623, and he was ordained as a deacon and priest in 1624. Herrick¿s major work, Hesperides or The Works Both Humane and Divine of Robert Herrick Esq., was published in 1648. There are some 1130 poems in the first, secular part, Hesperides, and 272 in Noble Numbers, the religious pieces. Herrick¿s poetry (his Hesperides) followed the plan outlined the poem ¿The Argument of His Book¿, with its lyrical evocation of the natural world. Herrick was particularly well situated, geographically, to write nature poetry. Like Coleridge, Wordsworth and Brontë, Herrick lived in the midst of the countryside, in the relative isolation of Dean Prior, on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon. There are many poems in Robert Herrick¿s work of love - about love desired, lost and mourned. Herrick is very definitely a ¿Muse poet¿, to use Robert Graves¿s term. There are many poems about various mistresses, ¿my dearest Beauties¿ he calls them in ¿To My Lovely Mistresses¿ (Anthea, Perilla, Electra, Blanch, Judith, Silvia, and the most beloved of all, Julia). There are many poems to certain ¿muses¿ or ¿maidens¿. The sheer number (and quality) of Herrick¿s poems to Julia attests to his deep passion for the friendship and strength of women: ¿To Juliä, ¿To Roses in Juliäs Bosom¿, ¿To Julia, Her Dawn, or Daybreak¿, ¿The Parliament of Roses to Juliä, ¿Upon Juliäs Recovery¿, ¿On Juliäs Fall¿, ¿His Sailing From Juliä, ¿Her Legs¿, ¿Her Bed¿, ¿On Juliäs Picture¿, ¿The Bracelet to Juliä, ¿To Julia in the Temple¿ and so on. Apart from poems addressed ¿To His Book¿, there are more poems in Robert Herrick¿s output ¿To Juliä than to anything else. Julia is ¿the prime of Paradise¿ (¿To Julia, in Her Dawn, or Day-breake¿). She is utterly adored, often erotically. There are poems which eulogize her breasts and nipples, for instance: ¿Display thy breasts.../ Between whose glories, there my lips I¿ll lay,/ Ravisht¿, he writes (in ¿Upon Juliäs Breasts¿); other paeans to Juliäs breasts include ¿Upon the Roses in Juliäs Bosom¿, and ¿Upon the Nipples of Juliäs Breast¿. Herrick makes the age-old connections between the fertility of nature outside (the rain, the lush vegetation, the rivers of the Paradisal Earth) and the bounty of women inside (Juliäs breasts form a valley of abundance, as in William Shakespeare¿s ¿Venus and Adonis¿, in which the poet would like to languish). Women in Herrick¿s poetry are seen as the givers of pleasure (expressed as sex), nurturance (breast milk), and all things worthy in the world (love). ¿All Pleasures meet in Woman-kind¿, he writes in ¿On Himself¿. They are just as important in his poetry as God, the King or Christianity.

SEX-MAGIC-POETRY-CORNWALL: THE POEMS OF PETER REDGROVE A new study of the poems of one of Britain's best but underrated poets, Peter Redgrove (1932-2003). This book considers some of Redgrove's wildest and most passionate works, creating a 'flood' of poetry. Philip Hobsbaum called Redgrove 'the great poet of our time', while Angela Carter said: 'Redgrove's language can light up a page.' Redgrove ranks alongside Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. He is in every way a major poet. Jeremy Robinson's essay analyzes all of Redgrove's poetic work, including his use of sex magic, natural science, menstrual energy, psychology, myth, alchemy and feminism. This new edition has been completely rewritten. With a bibliography and resources. Illustrated. British Poets Series. Peter Redgrove wrote to Jeremy Robinson about this book: Sex-Magic-Poetry-Cornwall is a very rich essay... It is a very good piece... Your essay has an infectious enthusiasm, which I'm grateful for, and I especially like the places where you actually grapple with the language of my poems, which is like writing them again. It is a very good piece, which carries the reader with it... Your own approach is irreplaceable because it seems to me founded on your own individuality and personal experience of my poems - which is vastly gratifying... in the majority it is vastly stimulating and insightful. Always, I am grateful to you for your trouble, and your deep response to what I have written. I like very much the way you have resurrected poems I had forgotten worked, like the clothes magic-wet and the alchemical honeymoon - I thought they didn't work because nobody had put them in context before of the elemental life that nudges into them always - and I like the cragginess of the prose poems in contrast. Your choice of quotations is excellent throughout, and this is the real point - plus enthusiasm.. it is like a laser gas into which you pump your enthusiastic energy, there is a sudden shift of atomic orbits, and the texts shine with their own weird and natural light!

ROBERT HERRICK UPON JULIA'S BREASTS: LOVE POEMS Edited by M.K. Pace ROBERT HERRICK (1591-1674) was one of the Cavalier poets (other Cavalier poets included Suckling, Carew and Lovelace). He was born in London and lived much of his life in the rough remoteness of a parish in Devonshire. He studied at Cambridge (St John's College and Trinity Hall). His law studies were dropped in 1623, and he was ordained as a deacon and priest in 1624. There are many poems in Robert Herrick's work of love - about love desired, lost and mourned. Herrick is very definitely a 'Muse poet', to use Robert Graves's term. There are many poems about several mistresses, 'my dearest Beauties' he calls them in 'To My Lovely Mistresses' (Anthea, Perilla, Electra, Blanch, Judith, Silvia, and the most beloved of all, Julia). There are many poems to certain 'muses' or 'maidens'. The sheer number (and quality) of Robert Herrick's poems to Julia attests to his deep passion for the friendship and strength of women: 'To Julia', 'To Roses in Julia's Bosom', 'To Julia, Her Dawn, or Daybreak', 'The Parliament of Roses to Julia', 'Upon Julia's Recovery', 'On Julia's Fall', 'His Sailing From Julia', 'Her Legs', 'Her Bed', 'On Julia's Picture', 'The Bracelet to Julia', 'To Julia in the Temple' and so on. Apart from poems addressed 'To His Book', there are more poems in Robert Herrick's output 'To Julia' than to anything else. Julia is 'the prime of Paradise' ('To Julia, in Her Dawn, or Day-breake'). She is utterly adored, often erotically. There are poems which eulogize her breasts and nipples, for instance: 'Display thy breasts.../ Between whose glories, there my lips I'll lay,/ Ravisht', he writes (in 'Upon Julia's Breasts'); other paeans to Julia's breasts include 'Upon the Roses in Julia's Bosom', and 'Upon the Nipples of Julia's Breast'. Her eyes, her nose, her mouth, her blush, her legs, her voice, her clothes, her perfume, her teeth - even her sweat. Robert Herrick's major work, Hesperides or The Works Both Humane and Divine of Robert Herrick Esq., was published in 1648. There are some 1130 poems in the first, secular part, Hesperides, and 272 in Noble Numbers, the religious pieces. Most of the poems in Hesperides have printed on a page of their own. Robert Herrick's poetry (his Hesperides) followed the plan outlined the poem 'The Argument of His Book', with its lyrical evocation of the natural world. Herrick was particularly well situated, geographically, to write nature poetry. Like Coleridge, Wordsworth and Brontë, Herrick lived in the midst of the countryside, in the relative isolation of Dean Prior, on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon. Includes illustrations, an introduction to Robert Herrick, and bibliography. 148 pages. www.crmoon.com

EDMUND SPENSER: AMORETTI The Amoretti by Edmund Spenser (c. 1552-99), published in 1595, is one of the great Elizabethan cycles of love poetry. The Amoretti cycle of poems is printed here in full, with each sonnet on its own on a page. This is beautiful poetry, poems of love, full of Edmund Spenser's delicate and intricate way with words. The Amoretti are packed of vivid imagery, of the natural world, of the seasons, of suns and moons, of days and nights - this is love poetry at its most refined and intelligent. Technically, Edmund Spenser knew everything about poetry. He wrote many sonnets (including the Amoretti), and in his The Faerie Queene he composed hundreds of nine-line stanzas. There is a stately progress to Spenser's poesie: he did not rush things. He took his time. William Wordsworth spoke of the 'Sweet Spenser, moving through his clouded heaven with the moon's beauty and the moon's soft pace'. In the Amoretti, is cycle of love sonnets, Spenser tackled his target, his beloved, from many directions. Spenser is unsurpassed in the art of poetic exaltation - no other poet of the era - and of subsequent or previous eras - can top Spenser's sense of the superlative and the exalted. Spenser's poetry is a litany of paeans: 'Epithalamion', 'A Hymn in Honour of Love', 'A Hymn in Honour of Beauty', 'A Hymn of Heavenly Beauty', 'A Hymn of Heavenly Love', 'Prothalamion', 'The Calendar' and of course The Faerie Queene all contain passages of lyrical praise. As with William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser's view of the world was crystallized in his poetry is an expansive, dramatic, encyclopaedic vision. The sheer amount of work by Spenser - the copious letters, 'Complaints', 'Hymns', sonnets, and stanzas in The Faerie Queene - attest to his love of writing. The length of The Faerie Queene is not the least astonishing thing about it. Spenser clearly had a lot to say, and would not stop until he had said it. With bibliography and new illustrations. ISBN 9781861715579. 128 pages. www.crmoon.com

ROSSETTIBy Lucien PissarroA study of the celebrated Pre-Raphaelite artist and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti by Lucien Pissarro, first published in 1894. This book considers Rossetti and his circle, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, including Morris, Hunt, Ford, Burne-Jones, and Millais. Fully illustrated, with works from Dante Gabriel Rossetti and all of the Pre-Raphaelite artists. With a full colour cover. Painters Series. Bibliography and notes. www.crmoon.com