Summer, A Season In Verse

By Alexander Pope, William Blake and Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Summer – An Introduction. Summer beckons each and every one of us to its warm embrace. For many of us it is the season we can most enjoy; the days are long and warm and all manner of things become easier. Nature shows us her most colourful side as she fills the landscape with colours and textures of every hue. As for ourselves we all seem a little more approachable, a little more likable. For poets the Summer season conjures up many themes and images. Keats, Blake, Dickinson, Tennyson, Longfellow, take us through many of these facets ably joined by Meynell, Pope, Van Dyke, Stevenson and many others. Many of these poems are also available on our audiobook version at iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Copyright Group
• Release date: Sep 24, 2013
• ISBN: 9781780005133

Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) was an English poet. Born in London to a family of Catholics who were later expelled from the city during a period of religious persecution, Pope was largely self-educated, and struggled with numerous illnesses from a young age. At 23, he wrote the discursive poem An Essay on Criticism (1711), a manifesto on the art of poetry which gained him the admiration and acclaim of influential critics and writers of his day. His most famous poem, The Rape of the Lock (1712), is a mock epic which critiques aristocratic English society while showcasing Pope’s mastery of poetic form, particularly the use of the heroic couplet. Pope produced highly acclaimed translations of the Iliad and Odyssey, which transformed Homer’s ancient Greek dactylic hexameter into a contemporary rhyming English verse. His work The Dunciad (1728-1743), originally published anonymously in Dublin, is a satirical poem which lampoons English literary society and criticizes the moral and intellectual decay of British life. Second only to Shakespeare for the frequency with which he is quoted, Alexander Pope succumbed to his illnesses at the age of 56 while at the height of his fame and productivity.

Book preview

Summer, A Season In Verse

Poetry is a fascinating use of language.  With almost a million words at its command it is not surprising that these Isles have produced some of the most beautiful, moving and descriptive verse through the centuries.  In this series we look at season through the eyes and minds of our most gifted poets to bring you a guide to the days within each.  

In this volume we embrace the joys of summer as it beckons each and every one of us to its warm embrace.   For many of us it is the season we can most enjoy; the days are long and warm and all manner of things become easier.

Nature shows us her most colourful side as she fills the landscape with colours and textures of every hue.  As for ourselves we all seem a little more approachable, a little more likable.    For poets the summer season conjures up many themes and images.  John Keats, William Blake, Emily Dickinson, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, take us through many of these facets ably joined by Alice Meynell, Alexander Pope, Henry Van Dyke, Daniel Sheehan, Robert Louis Stevenson and many others.

Many of the poems are also available as an audiobook from our sister company Portable Poetry.  Many samples are at our youtube channel   http://www.youtube.com/user/PortablePoetry?feature=mhee   The full volume can be purchased from iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores.  Among the readers are Richard Mitchley and Ghizela Rowe

Index Of Poems

Before Summer Rain by Rainer Maria Rilke

Written On A Summer Evening by John Keats

A Summer Evening Churchyard, Lechlade, Gloucestershire by Shelley

The Summer Rain by Henry David Thoreau

Summer by Alexander Pope

Rain In Summer by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Bed In Summer by Robert Louis Stevenson

Summer In The South by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Summer Sun by Robert Louis Stevenson

To Summer by William Blake

A Something In A Summer’s Day by Emily Dickinson

An Indian Summer Day On The Prairie by Vachel Lindsay

Indian Summer by Sara Teasdale

Summer In England 1914 by Alice Meynell

Summer Shower by Emily Dickinson

Summer Evening by John Clare

The Summer Sun Shone Round Me by Robert Louis Stevenson

Moonlight Summer Moonlight by Emily Jane Bronte

Summer Night by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Summer Song by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Summer by William Morris

Indian Summer by Henry Van Dyke

St Martin’s Summer by Robert Louis Stevenson

Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day? (Sonnet 18) by William Shakespeare

Tis The Last Rose Of Summer by Thomas Moore

Summer Dawn by William Morris

As Summer Into Autumn Slips by Emily Dickinson

In Summer by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A Man Young And Old: VIII. Summer And Spring by William Butler Yeats

On The Idle Hill Of Summer by A. E. Housman

Roundel by Geoffrey Chaucer

Four Songs For Four Seasons by  Algernon Charles Swinburne

Sweethearts Of The Year by Vachel