An original poem by Edward Black

A HISTORY OF ENGLISH POESY

By Edward Black


Caedmon in Celtic Whitby found his gift of song

later Scottish ballads in declaiming

and Chaucer with French words rhyming

all added to our poetry pudding

Sir Henry Neville wrote all “Shakespeare”

in sonorous rolling phrasing

encapsulating all thought and knowledge in that era:

Our Supreme Standard-Bearer.

The Age of Reason brought thought

and philosophy so taut

not much fun there

My Dear, I fear !

The Romantics described God in Nature

and man’s mind even loftier:

a thousand times more beautiful

than the earth on which he dwells

Manley Hopkins made language go so very far -

poetry scaling new heights to describe God’s Grandeur

Thomas Hardy, then, for me is the best

well ahead of the rest

but, for most,

Yeats singer of songs comes up to the mark

But since – who else has the divine poetic spark ?

Wystan Hugh Auden and Edward James Hughes !!

This image may be subject to copyright

 

© Edward Black April 2020

Edward can be contacted at: egblack@hotmail.com

 

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