The Penguin Book of English Verse

2064 Pages·2004·6.05 MB·English

by  Paul Keegan

THE PENGUIN BOOK OF ENGLISH VERSE
‘Wonderful… perhaps the last great one-volume work of its
kind’ Stephen Knight, The Times Literary Supplement
‘A wonderfully intelligent, adventurous, rich anthology,
essential for confirmed and potential poetry addicts alike’
Hermione Lee, Guardian, Books of the Year
‘A treasure chest of the English poetic tradition’ Muriel Spark,
The Times Literary Supplement, Books of the Year
‘Seems like the most interesting anthology of verse there has
ever been. The principles of organization and selection make so
many poems, and their provenance, newly startling. The book
includes the reader in such a way that one doesn’t have to
bother about what has been left out’ Adam Phillips, Irish Times,
Books of the Year
‘An extraordinarily fresh take on the whole sequence of English
poetry… a very well-chosen and generous anthology’ David
Sexton, Evening Standard, Books of the Year
‘Compendious, judicious and eclectic, this collection will
galvanize your appreciation of the canon again. Indeed, its
choices are so compellingly well made – that is, all the poems
chosen are good – that it almost creates a new canon by itself’
Nicholas Lezard, Guardian, Books of the Year
‘Keegan gives the twentieth century more space than any other,
and his post-war selection – crammed with Celts – is eye-
opening and bold… He is exceptionally good at hearing the
voices of women down the centuries’ Jim McCue, Evening
Standard
‘Serious, wide-ranging, and sometimes surprising… it’s a book
you should buy’ Anthony Thwaite, Sunday Telegraph
‘The generosity of its inclusions dilates the canon. Discarding
conventions, he serves the poetic tradition. It is as though
accreted varnish has been carefully removed and the picture
has regained a compelling luminosity… an editor who is also a
scholar with genuine literary tact’ Michael Schmidt,
Independent
‘He has a quantity of poems by Irish authors born after as well
as before 1922… and includes a good selection of poems in
Scots, with a glossary… Included for the first time in this
anthology, and very properly included, is the category of
poems translated into English… Keegan has an excellent eye
and ear. He includes poems that have to be there, adds some
good new ones, and has produced a genuinely new book. That
is quite an achievement’ Michael Alexander, Catholic Herald
‘The decision to print poems chronologically was an inspired
one, heightening a sense of progression through time. This is a
present to give any aspiring young person, opening their eyes
to a whole world with something to suit every taste’ Sir Roy
Strong, Daily Mail, Books of the Year
‘Radical and entertaining… moving through the familiar
territory of ancients, Anons, ballads, the famous dead and dead
famous in a way that will take the most jaded curriculum-
follower into unexpected corners and connections’ The Times
Educational Supplement
‘Seven hundred years of language, distilled into its sharpest
and brightest forms, are here to be discovered… Again and
again, the reader comes across thoughtful, and thought-
provoking juxtapositions of poems… The New Penguin Book of
English Verse demonstrates that we have the good fortune to
live in the English language, perhaps the richest, most supple,
promising, sharp-tongued and rule-breaking playground for
poetry’ Helen Dunmore, Observer
ABOUT THE EDITOR
Paul Keegan was formerly editor of the Penguin Classics and is
now Poetry Editor at Faber & Faber. He has edited the Collected
Poems of Ted Hughes (2003).
The Penguin Book of
ENGLISH VERSE
Edited by Paul Keegan
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Group
(USA), Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell,
Victoria 3124, Australia Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue,
Toronto, Ontario, CanadaM4V 3B2
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New Delhi – 110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), cnr Airborne and
Rosedale Roads, Albany, Auckland 1310, New Zealand Penguin Books
(South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, 2196South
Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London, WC2R
0RL, England www.penguin.com
First published by Allen Lane 2000
Published as The New Penguin Book of English Verse by Penguin Books
2001
Published under the current title in Penguin Classics 2004
7
Collection and Preface xxxix copyright © Paul Keegan, 2000
The acknowledgements on pp. 1104–8 constitute an extension of this
copyright page All rights reserved
The moral right of the editor has been asserted
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the
condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold,
hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent
in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published
and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed
on the subsequent purchaser ISBN: 9781101490648
Contents
Preface
[Rawlinson Lyrics] 1300–1350
ANONYMOUS ‘Ich am of Irlande’
ANONYMOUS ‘Maiden in the morë lay’
ANONYMOUS ‘Al night by the rosë, rosë’
[Harley Lyrics]
ANONYMOUS ‘Bitwenë March and Avëril’
ANONYMOUS ‘Erthë tok of erthe’
[Grimestone Lyrics] 1350–1400
ANONYMOUS ‘Gold and al this worldës wyn’
ANONYMOUS ‘Gloria mundi est’
ANONYMOUS ‘Love me broughte’
ANONYMOUS [The Dragon Speaks]
GEOFFREY CHAUCER from The Parliament of Fowls
[Catalogue of the Birds]
[Roundel]
GEOFFREY CHAUCER from The Boke of Troilus
[Envoi]
ANONYMOUS ‘When Adam dalf and Eve span’
WILLIAM LANGLAND from The Vision of Piers Plowman
[Prologue]
[Gluttony in the Ale-house]
GEOFFREY CHAUCER from The Canterbury Tales
from The General Prologue ‘Whan that Aprill with his shoures
soote’
from The General Prologue [The Prioress]
from The Knight’s Tale [The Temple of Mars]
from The Knight’s Tale [Saturn]
from The Milleres Tale [Alysoun]
from The Wife of Bath’s Prologue ‘My fourthe housbonde was
a revelour’
from The Pardoner’s Tale ‘Thise riotoures thre of whiche I telle’
ANONYMOUS from Patience
[Jonah and the Whale]
ANONYMOUS from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
[Gawain Journeys North]
GEOFFREY CHAUCER Envoy to Scogan
JOHN GOWER from Confessio Amantis
[Pygmaleon]
[The Rape of Lucrece]
1430 THOMAS HOCCLEVE from The Complaint of Hoccleve ‘Aftir
that hervest inned had hise sheves’
1440 CHARLES OF ORLEANS [Ballade] (‘In the forest of Noyous
Hevynes’)
CHARLES OF ORLEANS [Roundel] (‘Take, take this cosse, atonys,
atonys, my hert!’)
CHARLES OF ORLEANS [Roundel] (‘Go forth myn hert wyth my
lady’)
1450 [Sloane Lyrics]
ANONYMOUS ‘Adam lay y-bownden’
ANONYMOUS ‘I syng of a mayden’
ANONYMOUS ‘The merthe of alle this londe’
ANONYMOUS [Christ Triumphant]
ANONYMOUS [Holly against Ivy]
ANONYMOUS ‘Ther is no rose of swych vertu’
1500 JOHN SKELTON from Phyllyp Sparowe ‘Whan I remembre
agayn’
ROBERT HENRYSON from The Testament of Cresseid ‘O ladyis fair
of Troy and Grece, attend’
WILLIAM DUNBAR Lament, When He Wes Seik
1510 WILLIAM DUNBAR ‘Done is a battell on the dragon blak’
WILLIAM DUNBAR ‘In to thir dirk and drublie dayis’
1515 GAVIN DOUGLAS / VIRGIL from The Aeneid
from Book I [Aeolus Looses the Winds]
from The Proloug of the Sevynt Buik of Eneados
ANONYMOUS [The Corpus Christi Carol]
ANONYMOUS ‘Farewell, this world! I take my leve for evere’
ANONYMOUS ‘Draw me nere, draw me nere’
1520 ANONYMOUS ‘Westron wynde when wyll thow blow’
1523 JOHN SKELTON from A Goodly Garlande or Chapelet of
Laurell
[The Garden of the Muses: Iopas’ Song]
To Maystres Isabell Pennell
JOHN SKELTON from Speke Parott
[Parrot’s Complaint]
1530 WILLIAM CORNISH ‘Pleasure it is’
1535 MYLES COVERDALE from The Bible
Psalm 137: Super flumina