Silver Poets of the 16th Century

(Everyman's Library (Paperback))

by Gerald Bullett (Editor)

Vintage paperback

Genres: Poetry

428 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 1955

About the author

Gerald William (December 30, 1893 - January 3, 1958) was a British novelist, essayist, short story writer, critic and poet. He wrote both supernatural fiction and some children's literature.

He was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge. During World War II he worked for the BBC in London, and after the war was a radio broadcaster.

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bullett, in the introduction, notes that “Surrey’s distinctive and historically most important achievement was the inivention of the English blank verse, the medium in which Shakespeare’s and Milton’s masterpieces were to be written.” Frankly, I wasn’t aware of the source of such an important innovation. That fact alone would make this collection worthy of study. You can see the kernel of Shakespeare in lines such as the following:

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey – “Poems of Love and Chivalry”

From “XVII – A Lady Complains of Her Lover’s Absence”

When other lovers, in arms across,
Rejoice their chief delight,
Drowned in tears, to mourn my loss,
I stand the bitter night
In my window, where I may see
Before the winds how the clouds flee:
Lo, what a mariner love that made of me!

Sir Thomas Wyatt, a contemporary of Surrey’s, wrote remarkably beautiful poetry “Songs and Lyrics”. One can hear the rhythm and rhyming sequences even when simply reading. My favorite two included in this collection are:

“XLI”

If chance assign’d
Were to my mind
By very kind
Of destiny,
Yet would I crave
Nought else to have
But life and liberty.

Then were I sure
I might endure
The displeasure
Of cruelty:
Where now I plain,
Alas, in vain,
Lacking my life for liberty.

For without the one
The other is gone,
Ad there can none
It remedy:
If the one be past
The other doth waste,
And all for lack of liberty.

And so I drive,
As yet alive,
Although I strive
With misery:
Drawing my breath,
Looking for death
And loss of life for liberty.

But thou that still
Mayst at thy will
Turn all this ill
Adversity:
For the repair
Of my welfare
Grant me but life and liberty.

And if not so,
Then let all go
To wretched woe,
And let me die:
For the one or the other,
There is none other:
My death, or life with liberty.

“LXX”
The knot which first my heart did strain,
When that your servant I became,
Doth bind me still for to remain
Always your own as now I am.
And if you find that I do feign,
With just judgment myself I damn,
To have disdain.

If other thought in me do grow
But still to love you steadfastly,
If that the proof do not well show
That I am yours assuredly,
Let every wealth turn me to woe
And you to be continually
My chiefest foe.

If other love or new request
Do seize my heart but ony this,
Or if within my wearied breast
Be hid one thought that means amiss,
I do desire that mine unrest
May still increase, and I to miss
That I love best.

If in my love there be one spot
Of false deceit or doubleness,
Or if I mind to slip this knot
By want of faith or steadfastness,
Let all my service be forgot
And when I would have chief redress
Esteem me not.

But if that I consume in pain
Of burning sighs and fervent love
And daily seek none other gain
But with my deed these words to prove,
Methink of right I should obtain
That ye would mind for to remove
Your great disdain.

And for the end of this my song,
Unto your hands I do submit
My deadly grief and pains to strong
Which in my heart be firmly shut,
And when ye list, redress my wrong,
Since well ye know this painful fit
Hat last too long.

Sir Philip Sidney’s masterful “Astrophel and Stella” is included in this volume. There are many quotable lines, some of my favorite and quite representative would be:

“XLVIII”

Soul’s joy, bend not those morning stars from me
Where Virtue is made strong by Beauty’s might:
Where Love is chasteness Pain doth learn delight,
And Humbleness grows one with Majesty.
Whatever may ensue, O let me be
Co-partner of the riches of that sight.
Let not mine eyes be hell-driv’n from that light:
O look, O shine, O let me die, and see.
For though I oft myself of them bemoan
That through the heart their beamy darts be gone
Whose cureless wounds even now most freshly bleed,
Yet since my death-wound is already got,
Dear killer, spare not they sweet-cruel shot:
A kind of grace it is to slay with speed.

Additionally, Sir Walter Ralegh’s poetry is included. “Petition to Anne of Denmark” includes ringing lines such as “Even such is Time”:

Even such is Time, that takes in trust
Our youth, our joys, our all we have,
And pays us but with earth and dust;
Who, in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days.
But from this earth, this grave this dust,
My God shall raise me up, I trust.

In general, this is a remarkable collection. I would highly recommend any lover of literature to read this volume of the early poetry that so heavily influenced the later letters of western civilization.

See my other reviews here!