Poets' Corner: An Anthology

by Elizabeth Longford (Editor)

Set in Westminster Abbey's south transept, Poets' Corner is crowded with tombs, statues, busts, plaques, tablets and floorstones dedicated to great poets and writers, artists, divines and politicians. The author introduces the poets and writers and chooses selections of poetry and prose from Dryden, Dickens, George Eliot, Byron, Burns, T.S. Eliot, Jane Austen, Shakespeare, Shelley, Rupert Brooke and the Bronte sisters and Joseph Addison. The poets of World War I have their own section to illustrate the changes and emphasis in their prose, from "glory" to "mud and blood". Men of letters honoured elsewhere in the Abbey are featured in a separate section. Elizabeth Longford is the author of "Victoria RI", " Years of the Sword", " Pillar of the State", "The Life of Byron", "Eminent Victorian Women", "The Queen Mother", "Elizabeth R", her autobiography, "The Pebbled Shore" and "Darling Loosy".

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1993

About the author

Elizabeth (Harman) Pakenham, Countess of Longford, CBE was born on 30 August 1906. She was the daughter of Nathaniel Bishop Harman. She married Sir Francis Aungier Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford, KG, PC, son of Thomas Pakenham, 5th Earl of Longford and Lady Mary Julia Child-Villiers, on 3 November 1931. She died on 23 October 2002.
Her married name became Pakenham.

The Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography was established in 2003 in memory of Elizabeth Longford (1906-2002), the British author, biographer and historian. The £5,000 prize is awarded annually for a historical biography published in the preceding year. The Elizabeth Longford Prize is sponsored by Flora Fraser and Peter Soros and administered by the Society of Authors.

Reviews

[Vivien Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately the very long, very dry introduction set the tone. A bit too literary and dull for me. Yet the sections on the poets themselves, each with a short selection of their poetry, is useful for dipping into. Just not a book to read from cover to cover.