A history of England in 25 poems / Catherine Clarke ; with illustrations by Edward Bettison.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Clarke, Catherine A. M., author.

Contributor:

Bettison, Edward, illustrator.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English poetry--History and criticism.

English poetry.

Historical poetry, English.

Great Britain--History--In literature.

Great Britain.

Genre:

Literary criticism.

Physical Description:

xv, 366 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London : Allen Lane, part of the Penguin Random House group of companies, 2025.

Summary:

This is the history of England told in a new way: glimpsed through twenty-five remarkable poems written down between the eighth century and today, which connect us directly with the nation's past, and the experiences, emotions and imaginations of those who lived it. These poems open windows onto wildly different worlds - from the public to the intimate, from the witty to the savage, from the playful to the wistful. They take us onto battlefields, inside royal courts, down coal mines and below stairs in great houses. Their creators, witnesses to events from the Great Fire of London to the Miners' Strike, range from the famous to the forgotten, yet each invites us into an immersive encounter with their own time.

Contents:

Introduction

Beginnings: 'Cædmon's hymn' (around 730)

Vikings: extract from The battle of Maldon (around 1000)

Conquest and resistance: 'The death of King William' from the Peterborough Chronicle (around 1087)

Anarchy: the land torn apart: 'Who will give me a fountain of tears' by Henry of Huntingdon (around 1146)

Mice, monks and 'Merry England': 'Sumer is icumen in' (around 1260)

What women want: extract from 'The wife of Bath's tale' by Geoffrey Chaucer (probably 1390s)

Love and loss in a time of plague: extract from Pearl (around 1390)

Once more unto the breach: neighbours and adversaries: 'Agincourt carol' (1415)

Anne Boleyn and all that: 'Whoso list to hunt' by Thomas Wyatt (around 1520s)

Words for burning: 'The ballad which Anne Askew made and sang when she was in Newgate' by Anne Askew (1546)

Poetry, prophecy and the island: 'This England' (John of Gaunt's speech) from Richard II by William Shakespeare (around 1595)

The arse-end of England: 'Bum-fodder, or, Waste-paper, proper to wipe the nation's RUMP with, or your own' attributed to Alexander Brome (1660)

Out of the ashes: making the metropolis: extract from Annus mirabilis by John Dryden (1667)

Below stairs in the country house: extract from 'Crumble-Hall' by Mary Leapor (around 1745)

From Africa to New England to England: a voice for freedom: 'To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth' by Philis Wheatley (1773)

Contemplation of the dust: England in ruins: extract from Eighteen hundred and eleven by Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1812)

Under the wheels of progress: extract from 'The cry of the children' by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1842)

You'll be a man, my son: 'Rules and regulations' by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) (1845)

Queen Victoria's book: science, nature and faith: extract from In memoriam A.H.H. by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1850)

The history of a moment: 'Adlestrop' by Edward Thomas (1917)

Modernity, mourning and the shadow of war: 'Funeral blues' by W.H. Auden (1936 and 1937)

Poetry after Auschwitz: 'September song' by Geoffrey Hill (1968)

North-south divide: 'England's glory' by Fleur Adcock (1986)

Winds of change: 'Hurricane hits England' by Grace Nichols (1996)

Green: 'The groundsman' by Zaffar Kunial (2022).

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9780241765982

0241765986

OCLC:

1541792707

Publisher Number:

90102742685