The Penguin Book of English Verse

'an exceptionally rich collection. Even the best-read will find poets in it who are new to them...' - John Carey, Sunday Times '... assiduously researched, deftly managed and exhilaratingly ramified, [this] is a landmark anthology, perhaps the last great one-volume work of its kind' - TLS 'Keegan arranges the poems, rather than the authors, in chronological order; a radical manoeuvre with a startlingly vivifying effect' - John Lanchester, Daily Telegraph 'this big book is welcome: serious, wide-ranging and sometimes surprising... a book you should buy, and read, and argue with' - Anthony Thwaite, Sunday Telegraph 'Keegan's book is rich with discoveries and reclaimings... [a] very exciting, bold new book.' - James Wood, Guardian 'This anthology is a huge joy. [Keegan] shows the scholarship his system requires, and great taste besides.' - Tom Payne, Daily Telegraph

Paul Keegan is Poetry Editor at Faber and Faber.

The Penguin Book of English VersePreface 1300-1350 (Rawlinson Lyrics) Anonymous 'Ich am of Irlande' Anonymous 'Maiden in the mor lay' Anonymous 'Al night by the ros, ros' (Harley Lyrics) Anonymous 'Bitwen March and Avril' Anonymous 'Erth tok of erthe' 1350-1400 (Grimestone Lyrics) Anonymous 'Gold and al this worlds wyn' Anonymous 'Gloria mundi est' Anonymous 'Love me broughte' Anonymous (The Dragon Speaks) Geoffrey Chaucer from The Parliament of Fowls (Catalogue of the Birds) (Roundel) Geoffrey Chaucer from The Boke of Troilus (Envoi) Anonymous 'When Adam dalf and Eve span' William Langland from The Vision of Piers Plowman (Prologue) (Gluttony in the Ale-house) Geoffrey Chaucer from The Canterbury Tales from The General Prologue 'Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote' from The General Prologue (The Prioress) from The Knight's Tale (The Temple of Mars) from The Knight's Tale (Saturn) from The Milleres Tale (Alysoun) from The Wife of Bath's Prologue 'My fourthe housbonde was a revelour' from The Pardoner's Tale 'Thise riotoures thre of whiche I telle' Anonymous from Patience (Jonah and the Whale) Anonymous from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Gawain Journeys North) Geoffrey Chaucer Envoy to Scogan John Gower from Confessio Amantis (Pygmaleon) (The Rape of Lucrece) 1430 Thomas Hoccleve from The Complaint of Hoccleve 'Aftir that hervest inned had hise sheves' 1440 Charles of Orleans (Ballade) ('In the forest of Noyous Hevynes') Charles of Orleans (Roundel) ('Take, take this cosse, attonys, atonys, my hert!') Charles of Orleans (Roundel) ('Go forth myn hert wyth my lady') 1450 (Sloane Lyrics) Anonymous 'Adam lay y-bownden' Anonymous 'I syng of a mayden' Anonymous 'The merthe of alle this londe' Anonymous (Christ Triumphant) Anonymous (Holly against Ivy) Anonymous 'Ther is no rose of swych vertu' 1500 John Skelton from Phyllyp Sparowe 'Whan I remembre agayn' Robert Henryson from The Testament of Cresseid 'O ladyis fair of Troy and Greece, attend' William Dunbar Lament, When He Wes Seik 1510 William Dunbar 'Done is a battell on the dragon blak' William Dunbar 'In to thir dirk and drublie dayis' 1515 Gavin Douglas/Virgil from The Aeneid from Book I (Aeolus Looses the Winds) from The Proloug of the Sevynt Buik of Eneados Anonymous (the Corupus Christi Carol) Anonymous 'Farewell, this world! I take my leve for evere' Anonymous 'Draw me nere, draw me nere' 1520 Anonymous 'Westron wynde when wyll thow blow' 1523 John Skelton from A Goodly Garlande or Chapelet of Laurell (The Garden of the Muses: Iopas' Song) To Maystres Isabell Pennell John Skelton from Speke Parott (Parrot's Complaint) 1530 William Cornish 'Pleasure it is' 1535 Myles Coverdale from The Bible Psalm 137: Super flumina 1540 Sir Thomas Wyatt/Petrarch 'The longe love that in my thought doeth harbar' Sir Thomas Wyatt/Petrarch 'Who so list to hount I knowe where is an hynde' Sir Thomas Wyatt 'They fle from me that sometyme did me seke' Sir Thomas Wyatt 'My lute awake! Perfourme the last' Sir Thomas Wyatt 'Forget not yet the tryde entent' Sir Thomas Wyatt/Alamanni 'Myne owne John Poyntz, sins ye delight to know' 1542 Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey An Excellent Epitaffe of Syr Thomas Wyat 1547 Anne Askew The Balade whych Anne Askewe made and sange whan she was in Newgate 1557 from Tottel's Songes and Sonettes Sir Thomas Wyatt/Seneca (Chorus from Thyestes) ('Stond who so list upon the Slipper toppe') Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey 'O happy dames, that may embrace' Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey 'Alas, so all thinges nowe doe holde their peace'