The Oxford Book of Narrative Verse (Oxford paperbacks)

by Iona Opie (Editor), Peter Opie (Editor)

• Used

  Paperback
  1989

  $3.27

  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 .

• Used

  Paperback
  2002

  $3.27

  This is a story-book, universal in its appeal and representative of a literary tradition from Chaucer to Auden. Its tales are of various kinds - romantic, humorous, ghostly, and gory, written over the past six hundred years. Here will be found Pope's 'Rape of the Lock' and Coleridge's 'Ancient Mariner'; the tale of John Gilpin and of the Idiot Boy; 'The Lady of Shalott', 'The Pied Piper', and Lewis Carroll's 'The Hunting of the Snark'. In the twentieth century the narrative tradition is exemplified by Chesterton and Masefield, Charles Causley and C. Day-Lewis, amongst others. Most of the fifty-nine poems in this collection are given in their entirety, but abridgements and extracts from book-length narratives such as 'The Faerie Queene' and 'Paradise Lost' add to the richness and variety.