The Oxford Book of Narrative Verse by Iona Opie

The Oxford Book of Narrative Verse by Iona Opie

An anthology of 59 poems, most of which are given in their entirety, representing narrative verse from Chaucer to Auden. The editors have chosen poems that tell a straightforward and complete story or are, like Chaucer's "Death and the Three Revellers", stories within a story, or which are episodes from longer poems complete in themselves. Thus, the book is a story book with tales of various kinds - romantic, humorous, ghostly and gory - written at any time over the past 600 years. The selection includes Pope's "The Rape of the Lock" and Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"; Cowper's tale of John Gilpin and Wordsworth's "The Idiot Boy"; Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott"; Browning's "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" and Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark". In the 20th century the narrative tradition is exemplified by Chesterton and Masefield, Charles Causley and C.Day-Lewis, and includes the monologue "The Lion and Albert". Abridgements and extracts from book-length narratives like "The Faerie Queene" and "Paradise Lost" add to the richness and variety. Of special interest may be the notes at the back of the book, in which the editors trace the source of the poet's inspiration, whether fact or fiction, and show how the creative process has transmuted that source into a work of art. Iona and Peter Opie are also authors of "The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes and "The Oxford Book of Children's Verse".

Iona Opie has dedicated her life to collecting and preserving children's rhymes as an art form. I suppose my message in life is 'Nursery rhymes are good for you.' And the sooner you start, the better. I always have one myself every morning. I just open a nursery rhyme book at random. This morning I read:
Taffy was born on a
moonshiney night.

His head in a pipskin,
his heels upright.

You see, if you acquire a nursery rhyme-ical attitude, you're not at all put out by life's little bumps and bruises--they just seem funny and entirely normal.

Rosemary Wells says, We live in a time when our language is shrinking. Mother Goose, which represents our language at its most innocent, playful, and profound, is in danger of disappearing completely. Rhymes that have been repeated and refined for forty generations are no longer being taught to children. It is a great honor to work with Iona Opie with the hope of preserving these rhymes for many generations more. Rosemary wells lives in New York.

SKU	Non disponible
ISBN 13	9780192822437
ISBN 10	0192822438
Titre	The Oxford Book of Narrative Verse
Auteur	Iona Opie
État	Non disponible
Type de reliure	Paperback
Éditeur	Oxford University Press
Année de publication	1989-01-01
Nombre de pages	421
Note de couverture	La photo du livre est présentée à titre d'illustration uniquement. La reliure, la couverture ou l'édition réelle peuvent varier.
Note	Non disponible