Some Verses

Helen Hay WhitneyProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.6

Word count: 38K words
Chapters: 4

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Some Verses by Helen Hay WhitneyAuthor: Whitney, Helen Hay, 1875-1944,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Mar 14, 2013

Editor's review

This poetry collection is Helen Hay Whitney's poetic work, prepared by Project Gutenberg as a free eBook in English. Whitney lived from the late nineteenth to the first half of the twentieth century; her poems continue the English lyric tradition of the period, with themes mostly centered on emotion, nature, and everyday observation, concise in length and gentle in tone. For readers, the value of this book lies in its being a directly accessible literary historical source and reading sample: one can feel the idiom and prosody of the period's poetic style, and also use it as material for close reading of English poetry. The Project Gutenberg edition provides plain-text electronic text, easy to copy, search, and compare, but it has no modern annotation; readers must verify historical allusions and diction in the poems themselves. It is suitable for reading poem by poem in quiet spare moments, and also as supplementary reading for late nineteenth-century poetry in English literature courses.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General literary readers interested in late nineteenth-century English poetry
Self-learners or students needing close-reading material for English poetry
Digital reading enthusiasts collecting public-domain eBooks from Project Gutenberg

Not a good fit for

Readers who want Chinese translations and do not read English
Researchers needing detailed annotations and scholarly introductions
Readers who prefer long narrative or modern avant-garde poetry

Reading tips

Read two or three poems a day: first read through for sound and rhythm, then revisit words and imagery.
Mark unfamiliar words and allusions while reading through, then look them up together afterward.
Read aloud with recordings or your own voice to feel the prosody of English poetry.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book in Chinese or English?

This is an English poetry collection, written in English. Project Gutenberg provides the English electronic text without a Chinese translation, so some English reading ability is needed.

Does this eBook edition include annotations or an introduction?

According to the information, this is a public-domain electronic text prepared by Project Gutenberg, with no indication of modern annotations or an introduction. Readers need to use dictionaries or other resources to verify allusions and uncommon words.

Is it suitable as English learning material?

It can serve as supplementary material for close reading of poetry, because the pieces are short and the language condensed, suitable for studying vocabulary and syntax. But it is not a graded reader; readers with some English foundation are advised to use it with a dictionary.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Helen Hay Whitney Author · American · 1875–1944

Helen Hay Whitney (1875–1944) was an American poet and writer, born in New York and the daughter of John Hay, former United States Secretary of State. She published five works, including Herbs and Apples, Gypsy Verses, Sonnets and Songs, Some Verses, and The Rose of Dawn: A Tale of the South Sea. Her poetry often draws on flowers and herbs, travel and reflection, and lyrical themes, with a clear and graceful tone. After marrying into the Whitney family in 1902, she also became known as a noted racehorse breeder and philanthropist, and established the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation. Detailed criticism of her verse and particulars of her life are limited in publicly available sources.