Poets of every age deal with roughly the same human emotions, and for the experienced reader poetry is interesting or not depending upon the moment-by-moment intensity of its appeal. This skillful rendering by John Gardner of seven Middle English poems into sparklingly modern verse translation--most of them for the first time--represents a selection of poems that, generally, have real artistic value but are so difficult to read in the original that they are not as well known as they deserve to be. The seven poems are: The ...
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Poets of every age deal with roughly the same human emotions, and for the experienced reader poetry is interesting or not depending upon the moment-by-moment intensity of its appeal. This skillful rendering by John Gardner of seven Middle English poems into sparklingly modern verse translation--most of them for the first time--represents a selection of poems that, generally, have real artistic value but are so difficult to read in the original that they are not as well known as they deserve to be. The seven poems are: The Alliterative Morte Arthure , Winner and Waster , The Parlia ment of the Three Ages , Summer Sunday , The Debate of Body and Soul , The Thrush and the Nightingale , and The Owl and the Nightingale. The first four poems represent high points in the alliterative renais sance of the fourteenth century. Morte Arthure , here translated for the first time in its entirety into modern verse, is the only heroic romance in Middle English--a work roughly in the same genre as the French Song of Roland. The other three poems have been included in the anthology as further poetic examples. With his employment of extensive comments and notes on the poems, Gardner provides a wealth of aids to appreciation and understanding of his outstanding translations. The anthology will be of interest to general readers as well as to students.
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Seller's Description:
Reader copy. Exlibrary hardback with dust jacket covered in plastic, usual stamps/markings.1971 publication by Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale. Some light shelf wear & page edges little grubby otherwise a good, clean copy. Ready for immediate despatch from UK. BS-1C*
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Seller's Description:
Very Good in Very Good jacket. First edition. Octavo. xi, 298pp. Pen underlining and marginalia on some pages, spine ends lightly bumped, about very good in a very good dust jacket with short tears on edges with small internal tape repair on front panel topedge.
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Seller's Description:
8vo. xi, [3], 298 pp. Quarter-blue cloth over patternd boards, gilt & red lettrng & decrtn on spine (mnr shlfwr, slhgt soilng to fore-edge), w/ d.j. dmpstng & tidemrk to spine, still a VG-/G-copy. First edition, 1st printing of this scarce and exceptionally vigorous translation of seven relatively little-known medieval English poems, including the first complete modern English poetic rendering of the Alliterative Morte Arthure.
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Seller's Description:
Fine book in a fine dust jacket. 298 pages. First edition, first printing. An exceptionally vigorous translation of seven relatively little-known medieval English poems, including the first complete modern English poetic rendering of the Alliterative Morte Arthure. Fine book in a fine dust jacket. A beautiful copy!
