Poems, 1908-1919

John DrinkwaterProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 151K words
Chapters: 16

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.Poems, 1908-1919 by John DrinkwaterAuthor: Drinkwater, John, 1882-1937,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Mar 27, 2016

Editor's review

This poetry collection gathers poems John Drinkwater wrote between 1908 and 1919, a typical sample of the Georgian poetic style in English literature. Drinkwater was both a poet and a playwright; his poems are restrained in language and regular in rhythm, often taking rural scenery, the passage of time, and everyday emotions as subjects, without the deliberate formal experimentation of modernist poetry, retaining instead a gentle lyrical tradition. For Chinese readers, the value of this book lies not in a thrilling reading experience but in offering low-threshold access to the ordinary face of early twentieth-century English poetry: it helps readers understand what mainstream English poetic taste looked like before Eliot and Pound. The free electronic edition from Project Gutenberg is easy to search and excerpt, suitable as supplementary material for a "Georgian poetry" unit in an English literature course, and also suitable for English learners as material for close reading of short poems. One caveat: the book lacks modern annotations, so readers must supply historical background themselves.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General literary readers interested in early twentieth-century English poetry
English majors using it as supplementary reading for Georgian poetry
English learners selecting short poems for close reading and recitation practice
Literature teachers and researchers who need free electronic texts

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer strong narrative conflict or plot progression
Readers expecting modernist experimental poetry and avant-garde forms
Beginners who need detailed annotations and background introductions

Reading tips

First skim the table of contents and pick poems whose titles involve nature or time, forming an initial impression of the poet's range of subjects.
Read each poem aloud once and then silently, noting rhyme and rhythm to sense the metrical habits of Georgian poetry.
Read alongside historical background on early twentieth-century Britain to understand how the poems relate to social moods around World War I.
Excerpt favorite lines into notes and compare them with other English poets of the same period to form a cross-reference.

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 the original English, and how difficult is it?

This is an original English electronic book released by Project Gutenberg. The poetic language is generally plain and the meter regular; readers at college English level or above can read it through with a dictionary. Some cultural allusions require additional reference materials.

Who was Drinkwater, and why is his poetry worth reading?

John Drinkwater was an English poet and playwright active in the early twentieth century. His poetic fame is less prominent than that of the major poets of his time, but precisely for this reason his work reflects the ordinary tastes of English poetry of the period, making it suitable as background reading in literary history.

Does the Gutenberg edition have annotations or an introduction?

The Gutenberg edition mainly provides the public-domain text and usually contains no modern scholarly annotations or introduction. Readers who need background knowledge should consult English literary histories or studies of Georgian poetry separately.

Is it suitable for reading straight through from beginning to end?

A poetry collection is better read by theme or at random. Reading straight through can cause fatigue because the subjects and styles are similar; choosing three to five poems at a time, with notes and recitation, gives a better reading experience.

Comments

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About the author

John Drinkwater Author · British (English) · 1882–1937

John Drinkwater (1882–1937) was a British poet, playwright and critic, and a member of the Dymock poets before the First World War. He was known for his lyrical verse, publishing Poems, 1908–1919, Tides: A Book of Poems, The Lyric: An Essay and Preludes 1921–1922. His historical play Abraham Lincoln achieved great success in London and the United States in 1918, and he went on to write chronicle plays such as Oliver Cromwell, bringing historical figures to the stage. He also served for many years as manager of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, promoting the development of the repertory movement in Britain. Public information is limited, and the full range of his work remains to be further examined.