First Lines: Poems written in youth, from Herbert to Heaney

by Jon Stallworthy (Editor)

Edgar Allan Poe composed his famous lines about "the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome" at the age of fifteen. Yet not only Poe demonstrated early signs of lyrical Christopher Smart began writing verse when he was only five; Dylan Thomas produced creditable
verse at the age of eleven; Alexander Pope wrote what many regard as his prettiest poem at the age of twelve. The list goes on to include the likes of Thomas Chatterton, John Milton, Emily Brontë, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, Sylvia Plath, and many more.
In First Lines , Jon Stallworthy, a distinguished poet, anthologist, and critic, has collected verses written in youth--often the very first preserved poems--from George Herbert to Seamus Heaney. Responding to the questions of when, why, and how does a poet begin to write poems, Stallworthy
reveals many interesting common characteristics among these poems of childhood and adolescence. Chosen for their notable imagery, form or wit, this collection of poems--written by 58 poets who later wrote many of the finest poems in the English language--proves the truth of Auden's statement that if
an immature poet has any real talent he or she will display a distinctive style quite early. This anthology reveals the durability and excellence of what young writers have produced, and calls attention to the future delights these early poems would yield.

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Jon (Howie) Stallworthy (18 January 1935 – 19 November 2014) FBA FRSL was Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Oxford. He was also a Fellow (and was twice Acting President) of Wolfson College, a poet, and a literary critic. From 1977 to 1986, he was the John Wendell Anderson Professor of English at Cornell.

Stallworthy was born in London. His parents, Sir John Stallworthy and Margaret Stallworthy, were from New Zealand and moved to England in 1934. Stallworthy started writing poems when he was only seven years old. He was educated at the Dragon School, Rugby School and at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he won the Newdigate prize. His works include seven volumes of poetry, and biographies of Wilfred Owen and Louis MacNeice. He has edited several anthologies and is particularly known for his work on war poetry.

While researching the local history of New Zealand Stallworthy discovered an obscure volume entitled Early Northern Wairoa written by his great-grandfather, John Stallworthy (1854–1923), in 1916. From this book he learned that his great-great-grandfather, George Stallworthy (1809–1859), had left his birthplace of Preston Bissett in Buckinghamshire, England, for the Marquesas as a missionary. This discovery led in turn to him finding family-related letters in the archives of the London Missionary Society. Stallworthy's book A Familiar Tree (Oxford University Press, 1978) is a collection of poetry inspired by events depicted in these documents. Singing School is an autobiography which emphasises Stallworthy's development as a poet.

Stallworthy wrote a short summary of war poetry in the introductory chapter to the Oxford Book of War Poetry (Edited by Jon Stallworthy, Oxford University Press, 1984), as well as editing several anthologies of war poetry and writing a biography of Wilfred Owen. In 2010 he received the Wilfred Owen Poetry Award from the Wilfred Owen Association. In the course of his literary career, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the British Academy.