Six Poets: Hardy to Larkin: An Anthology



Note: If you encounter any issues while opening the Download PDF button, please utilize the online read button to access the complete book page.
Size | 29 MB (29,088 KB) |
---|---|
Format | |
Downloaded | 696 times |
Status | Available |
Last checked | 16 Hour ago! |
Author | Alan Bennett |
“Book Descriptions: The inimitable Alan Bennett selects and comments upon six favorite poets and the pleasures of their works
In this candid, thoroughly engaging book, Alan Bennett creates a unique anthology of works by six well-loved poets. Freely admitting his own youthful bafflement with poetry, Bennett reassures us that the poets and poems in this volume are not only accessible but also highly enjoyable. He then proceeds to prove irresistibly that this is so.
Bennett selects more than seventy poems by Thomas Hardy, A. E. Housman, John Betjeman, W. H. Auden, Louis MacNeice, and Philip Larkin. He peppers his discussion of these writers and their verse with anecdotes, shrewd appraisal, and telling biographical detail: Hardy lyrically recalls his first wife, Emma, in his poetry, although he treated her shabbily in real life. The fabled Auden was a formidable and off-putting figure at the lectern. Larkin, hoping to subvert snooping biographers, ordered personal papers shredded upon his death.
Simultaneously profound and entertaining, Bennett’s book is a paean to poetry and its creators, made all the more enjoyable for being told in his own particular voice. its creators, made all the more enjoyable for being told in his own particular voice.”