The Oxford library of English poetry

by John Wain (Editor)

Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Reference, Literature

1480 pages, Hardcover

First published April 24, 1986

About the author

John Barrington Wain was an English poet, novelist, and critic, associated with the literary group "The Movement". For most of his life, Wain worked as a freelance journalist and author, writing and reviewing for newspapers and the radio.

Wain was born and grew up in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, the son of a dentist, Arnold Wain, and his wife Annie, née Turner. He had an older sister and a younger brother, Noel. After attending Newcastle under Lyme High School, he entered St. John's College, Oxford, gaining a first in his BA in 1946 and MA in 1950. He was a Fereday Fellow of St. John's between 1946 and 1949. On 4 July 1947, Wain married Marianne Uffenheimer (b. 1923 or 1924), but they divorced in 1956. Wain then married Eirian Mary James (1920 - 1988), deputy director of the recorded sound department of the British Council, on 1 January 1960. They had three sons and lived mainly in Wolvercote, Oxford. Wain married his third wife, Patricia Adams (born 1942 or 1943), an art teacher, in 1989. He died in Oxford on 24 May 1994.

Reviews

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this is a handsome, three-volume set for one primary reason – its format. In three hardcover volumes, it is immensely easier to read than the twenty-two-hundred-page (usually Norton) paperback tomes that are required for college freshman studying English. These awkwardly floppy, dead-heavy volumes do not call out “read me.” Rather, they are wrist-straining blobs of pulp that repel the reader and suffer the reading.

Thus the appeal of this volume. Three separate, hardcover volumes, about 400 pages each that are easy to curl up with and enjoy for a lifetime. And unlike the reference-dictionary catch-all ethos of the college anthology, this is thankfully more concise.

Alas, my poetry friends, the search may continue. For starters, the volume contains no information about poets (other than birth and death years), nor anything about the poems – not even the years they were composed or published. While mining obscure poems, the editor does not provide helpful historical or mythological context, nor any assistance with obscure/archaic words. It’s rather disappointing.

And while one can always argue about the selection, this was compiled in 1986 and it feels a bit old fashioned. There are very few women poets, for example.

Here are my reviews of each volume:

Volume I – As the volume is subtitled, this takes us from Spenser to Dryden. The editor never explains why he started with Spenser. Traditionally, “modern” anthologies start with Chaucer, which a person can struggle through with some help without a translation. So what about Chaucer, Skelton, Langland, Wyatt, Surrey, etc.? They practically invented English poetry.

I’m sure you can always quibble about what should or shouldn’t be included. However, how do you not include Raleigh’s response to the Passionate Shepherd? Or Donne’s A Valediction Forbidding Mourning? How? It also doesn’t include any women poets.

I immensely enjoyed that the editor uses the original spelling in the first quarter of the volume. It adds a mystique and provides a clearer sense of how the original poets viewed and heard the words during their lifetimes. Unfortunately, the editor stops that practice with Shakespeare, for no apparent reason.

Outside the obvious stars, the poems that stood out to me were Fulke Greville’s Chorus of Priests. (I assume from a play, but I’m not sure.) The opening lines of Thomas Campion’s Follow Your Saint are entrancing:

“Follow your saint, follow with accent sweet;
Haste you, sad notes, fall at her flying feet.” (p.186)

Jonson’s Song to Celia is also beautiful. (p. 205) And Thomas Dekker’s Golden Slumbers (p. 219) was a surprise to me as a Beatles fan. (03/20)

[Sash Chiesa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to John Wain for this excellent selection. Highly recommended for anyone interested in English poetry.

[Lynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

So tender, so elegant, so English!

[Alex Lopez]

Vol. 1 - Five stars. The 'Golden Age' was truly golden, teeming with splendour and wit.
Vol. 2 - Four stars. A mix of great and not so great.