The Poetical Works of Jean Ingelow: Including the Shepherd Lady and Other Poems

by Jean Ingelow

This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature.

Genres: Poetry

542 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1900

Reviews

[Jim Puskas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jean Ingelow (1820-1897) was an English poet and novelist. Her stories, novels and poetry are almost totally forgotten today, but she was very well known in her day, even being mentioned by Dickens in his novel “Somebody’s Luggage”. After first appearing in print in 1863, this, her first full collection, ran rapidly through numerous editions, were set to music, and sung in every drawing-room. Ingelow later published at least four novels and several books of stories for children, followed by a final series of poems in 1885. I would love to be able to find a copy of her “Stories Told to a Child” but my chances of landing such a thing, out of print for at least a hundred years, are slim indeed.
Despite its 19th century style, Ingelow’s poetry has great appeal for its rich imagery, easy melodic flow and gentle, kindly manner. I have dipped into this fine old volume again and again over many years and find it a delightfully refreshing alternative to the much more contrived sort of thing that most poets compose today. Many of the poems were obviously written as material for songs, while a few others are lengthy narratives. Poems such as “Supper at the Mill”, consisting of dialogue in the simple dialect of country folk, I find especially charming. There’s a notable absence of pretension to scholarship, or philosophic, moralistic musing, or religious wrangle; and scarcely a reference to the classics, a choice that clearly sets Ingelow apart from her peers. She had the instincts of a story-teller and she clearly sought to entertain rather than impress; even a lengthy narrative such as “A Story of Doom” never becomes lugubrious, and many poems include bits of quiet humor.
The copy in my possession was issued in 1863 by Thomas Crowell and Co., New York, in their “Red Line” series with gold edging and a beautiful, elaborately decorated gold-embossed binding—the sort of book that, if it existed at all today, would probably sell for well over $200. So, quite apart from its enjoyable contents, I would consider it a rare treasure, if only as an artifact of an earlier era.

[Tasha Constable · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book was good, a lil hard to concentrate on some of the poems, but their was some good ones