
The Faber Book of Epigrams and Epitaphs
Various(Author)
Geoffrey Grigson(Editor)
Faber & Faber (Publisher)
Published on 21. August 2008
Book
Paperback/Softback
304 pages
978-0-571-24283-2 (ISBN)
Description
Triumphant Demons stand, and Angels start,
To see the abysses of the human heart. -- Landor
English poetry is supposed to be short in epigrams. But here there is a choice of more than 700 epigrams and epitaphs (which are epigrams of a special kind) from the sixteenth century to our time, familiar, unfamiliar, and even unknown. This ancient art of witty and satirical and also tender compression - an art as old as Plato and as young as the youngest living poet - has found its English masters in Herrick, Prior, Pope, Blake, Burns, Walter Savage Landor, Patmore and in twentieth-century masters Belloc and Robert Graves, all poets of strong liking or disliking. But poet after poet, major and minor and anon, has hated, loved, laughed, ridiculed, in couplets and quatrains, taking his cue from the great Latin epigrammatist Martial, from the Latin epigrammatists of the Renaissance (in Elizabethan times every Winchester schoolboy was expecting to be able to write a neat Latin epigram) or from the Greek Anthology of from his own English (and French) predecessors.
Here lie the bones of Elizabeth Charlotte,
That was born a virgin and died a harlot.
She was aye a virgin at seventeen,
An extraordinary thing for Aberdeen. -- Anon
He served his God so faithfully and well
That now he sees him face to face, in hell. -- Belloc
To see the abysses of the human heart. -- Landor
English poetry is supposed to be short in epigrams. But here there is a choice of more than 700 epigrams and epitaphs (which are epigrams of a special kind) from the sixteenth century to our time, familiar, unfamiliar, and even unknown. This ancient art of witty and satirical and also tender compression - an art as old as Plato and as young as the youngest living poet - has found its English masters in Herrick, Prior, Pope, Blake, Burns, Walter Savage Landor, Patmore and in twentieth-century masters Belloc and Robert Graves, all poets of strong liking or disliking. But poet after poet, major and minor and anon, has hated, loved, laughed, ridiculed, in couplets and quatrains, taking his cue from the great Latin epigrammatist Martial, from the Latin epigrammatists of the Renaissance (in Elizabethan times every Winchester schoolboy was expecting to be able to write a neat Latin epigram) or from the Greek Anthology of from his own English (and French) predecessors.
Here lie the bones of Elizabeth Charlotte,
That was born a virgin and died a harlot.
She was aye a virgin at seventeen,
An extraordinary thing for Aberdeen. -- Anon
He served his God so faithfully and well
That now he sees him face to face, in hell. -- Belloc
More details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 135 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
416 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-571-24283-2 (9780571242832)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Geoffrey Grigson, poet and writer, was born in Cornwall in 1905. After (in his words) "a profitless sojourn" at Oxford University, he worked as literary journalist and critic. His best journalism was collected in The Contrary View (1974) and Blessings, Kicks and Curses (1982), while The Harp of Aeolus (1947) and his book on Samuel Palmer (1947) contains some of his finest writing on art. His trio of poetry anthologies (Before the Romantics, The Romantics and The Victorians) were universally heralded for their careful and original selection. His first book of poetry was Several Observations (1939) and his Collected Poems was published in 1963.
He had four children and was married three times, lastly to Jane McIntire, who, as Jane Grigson, became a celebrated cookery expert. He died in 1985.
He had four children and was married three times, lastly to Jane McIntire, who, as Jane Grigson, became a celebrated cookery expert. He died in 1985.