vintage
Vintage poetry stands the test of time; collections and anthologies of classic poems and enduring verses from eras past.
"Leda and the Swan": a poem by W B Yeats
W B Yeats’s poem “Leda and the Swan” was published in his 1928 collection “The Tower”, although the poem itself is dated 1923, the year in which he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. It is therefore a poem written at the height of his powers (he was 58 in 1923) and belongs to the period when he was exploring the occult and attempting to explain national and world events within a mystical and symbolic context.
By John Welford5 years ago in Poets
"Dover Beach", a poem by Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold’s (1822-88) major contribution to English literature was as a prose writer, but in his early years he wrote a considerable quantity of poetry, most of it not being particularly good. However, with “Dover Beach” he produced one of the greatest poems of the 19th century, and it deserves its place in popular acclaim.
By John Welford5 years ago in Poets
Tam O'Shanter, by Robert Burns
Robert Burns (1759-96) is best known for his short poems in lowland Scots dialect, many of which were written during the years 1785 and 1786 and published in Kilmarnock in 1786 as “Poems Chiefly in the Scottish dialect”, the volume generally being known as “the Kilmarnock edition”. However, he later composed and edited many songs and ballads, some in dialect and others not, that are generally less well known although they do include some that are very well known indeed, such as “Auld Lang Syne” and “Scots Wha Hae”. One of these later poems is “Tam o’ Shanter” which, at 228 lines, is one of the longest poems Burns ever wrote.
By John Welford5 years ago in Poets
