{"title":"British Poets Ser","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"poems-of-1820-book-john-keats-9781861713643","title":"Poems of 1820","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49598651433233,"sku":"GOR012917836","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1861713649.jpg?v=1751186175"},{"product_id":"great-ring-of-pure-and-endless-light-book-henry-vaughan-9781861713414","title":"A Great Ring of Pure and Endless Light","description":"Henry Vaughan: A Great Ring of Pure and Endless Light: Selected Poems \u003cp\u003e A cluster of the very best of Henry Vaughan's Metaphysical poems, which are filled with a 'deep, but dazzling darkness'. Lesser known Vaughan works, including some love poems, are collected here beside the famous pieces such as 'The Morning Watch', 'The World' and 'The Night'. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e Henry Vaughan is the Metaphysical poet from the Welsh borders (he was born at Newton-upon-Usk, Breconshire, in 1621). He went up to Oxford, studied law in London, wrote some astounding religious poetry, and died in 1695. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e The dazzling night pervades Henry Vaughan's poetry. It is a cosmic night, a night of regeneration. Many of the Vaughan poems collected here pivot around an experience of the cosmic, religious night, from 'The World', with its famous, much-anthologized opening lines: 'I saw Eternity the other night - Like a great Ring of pure and endless light'. It is a night of rebirth, the night as a dark womb, in which the world is reborn. Cosmic rebirth is one of the major themes in Vaughan's poetry, and especially in his collection or series of sacred poems, Silex Scintillans. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e Henry Vaughan is one of the most radiant of British poets. Like other Metaphysical poets (poets such as George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, Andrew Marvell and John Donne), the deep darkness of the alchemical ferment in Vaughan's poetry is balanced by a radiance, a light shining out of the darkness. It is a divine light, as found in the Mystical Theology of the influential Christian writer, Dionysius the Areopagite. Dionysius' Neoplatonic visions of divinity and the celestial hierarchies of angels influenced Dante Alighieri, among many others poets. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e Henry Vaughan's poetry moves from dark to light, with the seeds of one being always present in the other. His nights, for all their darkness, also grow light. Vaughan's poetry is about big themes, cosmic themes, religious themes, with titles such as 'The World', 'Regeneration', 'Peace', and 'The Retreat'. Vaughan is not shy of big themes, as some poets are. He dives right in. His openings are particular powerful, striking up a majestic tone immediately: \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e I saw Eternity the other night \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Like a great Ring of pure and endless light... ('The World') \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Happy those early days  when I Shined in my Angel-infancy. ('The Retreat') \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e 'My soul, there is a country \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Far beyond the stars... ('Peace') \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e They are all gone into the world of light  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e And I alone sit ling'ring here... (They are all gone) \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Through that pure Virgin-shine, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e That sacred veil drawn o'er the glorious noon... ('The Night') Revised and updated text. Illustrated. www.crmoon.com\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50392184160529,"sku":"CIN186171341XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51052923322641,"sku":"NIN9781861713414","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52332073648401,"sku":"NLS9781861713414","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53741440270609,"sku":"GOR008963337","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/186171341X.jpg?v=1751314011"},{"product_id":"amoretti-book-edmund-spenser-9781861711533","title":"Amoretti","description":"EDMUND SPENSER: AMORETTI \u003cp\u003e The Amoretti by Edmund Spenser 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. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e This is beautiful poetry, poems of love, full of Spenser's delicate and intricate way with words. Full 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51052813844753,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51052815876369,"sku":"NIN9781861711533","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52348286107921,"sku":"NLS9781861711533","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1861711530.jpg?v=1751091983"},{"product_id":"crescent-moon-book-of-nature-poetry-book-margaret-elvy-9781861711328","title":"The Crescent Moon Book of Nature Poetry","description":"THE CRESCENT MOON BOOK OF NATURE POETRY \u003cp\u003e An anthology of great nature poems, including the Elizabethan pastorals of Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, Sir Walter Raleigh and Michael Drayton, and classics of nature mysticism by Geoffrey Chaucer, William Langland, James Thomson, William Blake and William Wordsworth, among others. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e Famous anthology pieces nestle amongst lesser known poems, including some neglected women poets, and American poets such as Amy Lowell and Emily Dickinson. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e The British nature poetry tradition builds on the Greek tradition of bucolic themes. The early poems of the nature poetry tradition in Britain include 'Sumer is y-cumen in', that famous hymn to the rebirth of Spring and warmth. The strength of the mediaeval rhythms continues undiminished. It is (partially) the solidity of the poetic rhythm of 'Sumer is y-cumen in' that makes the poem so successful. The rhymes, too, do not jar, as so they often do in British poetry from the Victorian era onwards. The rhymes of Langland, Chaucer and mediaeval English poets weld their verses together. In Chaucer's famous poem included here the rhyme scheme is as complex as any in troubadour or French Symbolist poetry, but Chaucer sticks to strong, basic end-words: 'blake', 'make', 'wake' and 'shake'. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e Just as beautiful as 'Sumer is y-comen in', though less well-known, are the many anonymous poems of nature, of the mediaeval era, of which Lenten is come with love to towne is such a delicious example. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e In nature poetry, whether of the mediaeval epoch or of contemporary poets, notions such as Spring, childhood and paradise fuse. Terms such as idyll, Arcadia, Eden and golden age are different names for a fount of feeling, to do with love\/ nature\/ childhood\/ purity, and which lies at the heart of nature poetry. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e One finds archetypal imagery in the nature poetry included here. There is the wood or forest, for example, such a key part of William Shakespeare's plays. In Sir Philip Sidney's poem from The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, the woods are 'the delight of solitariness'. In Sir Thomas Wyatt's I must go walk the woods so wild, the forest becomes a place of wilderness and banishment (again a common theme in Shakespeare). In Sir Walter Raleigh's 'The Nymph's Reply to the Sheepheard', we find the archetypal (indeed, stereotypical) imagery of the shepherd abroad in the countryside meeting the nymph. By the time of Henry Vaughan's poetry, God and Christianity has infused nature poetry, so that nature becomes subordinated to (and a part of) God's divine plan. But the love of nature continues unabated in the Romantic poets, in Shelley, Browning, and the Wordsworths, up to and beyond Thomas Hardy. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51249151738129,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51249154621713,"sku":"NIN9781861711328","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52348416885009,"sku":"NLS9781861711328","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1861711328.jpg?v=1753684437"},{"product_id":"amoretti-book-edmund-spenser-9781861713544","title":"Amoretti","description":"EDMUND SPENSER: AMORETTI \u003cp\u003e The Amoretti by Edmund Spenser 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. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e This is beautiful poetry, poems of love, full of Spenser's delicate and intricate way with words. Full 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52140450316561,"sku":"NLS9781861713544","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52755868188945,"sku":"NIN9781861713544","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781861713544.jpg?v=1757574645"},{"product_id":"bright-star-book-john-keats-9781861713759","title":"Bright Star","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe epic romance of one of the most celebrated poets in the English language \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Coming to theatres in September 2009 is the tragic love story of nineteenth- century poet John Keats and the love of his life, Fanny Brawne. Keats died at the young age of twenty-five, leaving behind some of the most exquisite and moving verse and letters ever written, inspired by his deep love for Fanny. \u003ci\u003eBright Star\u003c\/i\u003e is a collection of Keats' romantic poems and correspondence in the heat of his passion, and is a dazzling display of a talent cut cruelly short.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52589986513169,"sku":"NLS9781861713759","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52755473957137,"sku":"NIN9781861713759","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781861713759.jpg?v=1761061156"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/british-poets-ser-book-series.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}