English Poems

Le Gallienne, Richard, 1866-1947Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.5

Word count: 75K words
Chapters: 8

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.English Poems by Richard Le GallienneAuthor: Le Gallienne, Richard, 1866-1947,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Feb 1, 2004

Editor's review

Richard Le Gallienne's English Poems is one of the representative collections of late nineteenth-century British Aestheticism and fin-de-siècle lyric poetry; this public-domain ebook preserves its light, sentimental, and metrically polished character. Le Gallienne's poems mostly treat love, nature, art, and city life in refined language and soft imagery, repeatedly dwelling on beauty and its passing. For Chinese readers its value lies not in grand narrative but in offering a sample of the feel of late Victorian lyric: how private emotion is handled in regular meter, how subtle turns are managed within traditional prosody. The book suits close reading of English poetry and also offers a view of lyric writing on the periphery of the Aesthetic movement. Note that its period taste is strong and some rhetoric now seems cloying; it is better read slowly in small selections than straight through.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers of English literature interested in late Victorian and Aestheticist poetry
Learners who wish to use short poems for close reading of English meter and imagery
Readers who enjoy lyrical, sentimental style and are willing to read slowly for language
Those who need public-domain English poems for translation or imitation exercises

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer modernism, free verse, or strongly intellectual poetry
Readers looking for social critique or grand historical narrative
Readers easily weary of late nineteenth-century sentimental rhetoric and sweet imagery

Reading tips

Choose three to five short poems each time and read them aloud, first sensing rhyme and rhythm, then returning to meaning.
Read by theme: pick several poems each on love, nature, and art, and compare the reuse of the same imagery.
Look up pronunciation and stress of unfamiliar words first, then judge their place in the meter, rather than translating literally.
After reading, imitate the meter of one poem in a few lines of English to appreciate the difficulty of rhyme and enjambment.

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

What period did Le Gallienne belong to?

Richard Le Gallienne lived from 1866 to 1947 and was active in British literary circles from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, close to Aestheticism and fin-de-siècle lyric style. This book collects his English poems and is a public-domain electronic text.

Is this collection suitable for English beginners?

Not entirely for absolute beginners. The vocabulary is literary and the syntax constrained by meter, and allusions and imagery require some background. Readers with intermediate English who are willing to look up words and read aloud will better appreciate its music and rhetoric.

Do I need to know about Aestheticism to read this collection?

Systematic study is not necessary, but knowing that Aestheticism valued form, sensation, and "art for art's sake" makes it easier to understand the recurring themes of vanishing beauty, love, and art. Read the poems first and add background later, so theory does not overwhelm the response to the text.

What if the ebook lacks notes?

Prepare an English literary dictionary and a glossary of prosodic terms; mark mythological allusions or place names and look them up after finishing a poem. You may also read annotated editions of other poets of the same period, but do not let notes replace direct attention to meter and tone.

Comments

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About the author

Le Gallienne, Richard, 1866-1947 Author

Richard Le Gallienne (1866–1947) was a writer active in English letters from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. Public information about his life and nationality is limited, and the library holds 17 of his works. His writing spans poetry, prose and fairy tales: the poetry collections The Lonely Dancer and Other Poems and The Silk-Hat Soldier, and Other Poems in War Time show lyricism and an awareness of their era, while the prose volumes Prose Fancies and The Book-Bills of Narcissus have an easy, personal tone, and the novels The Romance of Zion Chapel and The Worshipper of the Image explore emotional and aesthetic themes. He also wrote The Maker of Rainbows, and Other Fairy-tales and Fables and October Vagabonds. His clear, graceful style carries an aesthetic and romantic flavor, appealing to readers interested in English literature from the late Victorian to the Edwardian age.