The Abbey Poets

By Geoffrey Chaucer

Westminster Abbey has seen much during its long, rich history. The coronations of Kings and Queens, the burials of Prime ministers. However it is also a church that remembers the men and women of the arts. Dedicated writers and poets who spoke so eloquently that the Nation wished to bid farewell on a stage grand enough to match their talents. Their talents and works are worth remembering and here, in these volumes, their wise words speak too and for us all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Copyright Group
• Release date: Jan 27, 2014
• ISBN: 9781783947799

Book preview

The Abbey Poets - Buried At Westminster  

Westminster Abbey has seen much during its long, rich history.  The coronations of Kings and Queens, the burials of Prime ministers.

However it is also a church that remembers the men and women of the arts.  Dedicated writers and poets who spoke so eloquently that the Nation wished to bid farewell on a stage grand enough to match their talents.   

Their talents and works are worth remembering and here, in this volume, their wise words speak too and for us all.

We have also recorded many of these poems for a companion Audiobook version which is available at iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores.

Index Of Poems

Joseph Addison - The Spacious Firmament (Hymn)

Joseph Addison - Immortality

Sir Robert Ayton - To His Forsaken Mistress

Sir Robert Ayton - To An Inconstant One

Francis Beaumont - On the Tombs In Westminster Abbey

Francis Beaumont - Lay A Garland On My Hearse

Francis Beaumont - The Author To The Reader

Jane Barker - To My Young Lover

Aphra Behn - Love Armed

Aphra Behn - The Willing Mistress

Aphra Behn - A Thousand Martyrs I Have Made

Robert Browning - My Last Duchess

Robert Browning – Memorabilia

Robert Browning – Epilogue

Thomas Campbell - The Dirge Of Wallace

Thomas Campbell - The Last Man

Geoffrey Chaucer - Chaucer's Prophecy

Geoffrey Chaucer - Good Counsel of Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer - A Ballad of Gentleness

Geoffrey Chaucer - The Merchant's Tale (prologue)

Geoffrey Chaucer - L'Envoy of Chaucer to Bukton

William Congreve - False Though She Be

William Congreve - A Hue and Cry After Fair Amoret

Abraham Cowley - The Given Heart

Abraham Cowley - A Supplication

Abraham Cowley - The Despair

William Davenant - Weep No More For What Is Past

William Davenant - Praise And Prayer

William Davenant - To A Mistress Dying

Charles Dickens - A Fine Old English Gentleman

Charles Dickens - Little Nell's Funeral

Michael Drayton - The Ballad Of Agincourt

Michael Drayton - To the Reader of These Sonnets

John Dryden - Fair Iris I Love And Hourly I Die

John Dryden - Life A Cheat

John Dryden - Farewell Ungrateful Traitor

John Dryden - Can Life Be A Blessing

John Dryden - Ah, How Sweet It Is To Love!

John Dryden - Why Should A Foolish Marriage Vow

Thomas Hardy - Rain On A Grave

Thomas Hardy - The Dead Man Walking

Thomas Hardy - Men Who March Away

Samuel Johnson - Friendship

Samuel Johnson - The City of God

Samuel Johnson - The Young Author

Ben Jonson - To Heaven

Ben Jonson - On My First Son

Ben Jonson - Of Life And Death

Ben Jonson - The Short Fear

Ben Jonson - The Noble Nature

Ben Jonson - The Noble Balm

Rudyard Kipling - The English Flag

Rudyard Kipling - Our Fathers Also

Rudyard Kipling – If

Lord Lytton - The Vampiress

Thomas Babbington Macaulay - Lines Written In August

Andrew Marvell - To His Coy Mistress

Andrew Marvell - A Dialogue, Between the Resolved Soul, And Created Pleasure

Andrew Marvell - A Dialogue Between The Soul and Body

Katherine Phillips - Against Love

Katherine Phillips - To One Persuading A Lady To Marriage

Katherine Phillips - The World

Matthew Prior - To a Child of Quality

Matthew Prior - A Song: ‘If wine and music have the power’

Nicholas Rowe - The Brave

Nicholas Rowe - Collins Complaint

Nicholas Rowe - Jane Shore, A Tragedy (excerpt)

Richard Brinsley Sherdian - Had I A Heart For Falsehood Framed

Richard Brinsley Sherdian - A Portrait

Edmund Spenser - Ice and Fire

Edmund Spenser - Whilst It Is Prime

Edmund Spenser - A Hymn In Honour Of Beauty

Alfred Lord Tennyson - The Charge Of The Light Brigade

Alfred Lord Tennyson - Ring Out Wild Bells

Alfred Lord Tennyson - Break Break Break

Joseph Addison - The Spacious Firmament (Hymn)

The spacious firmament on high,

With all the blue ethereal sky,

And spangled heavens, a shining frame,

Their great Original proclaim.

Th' unwearied Sun from day to day         

Does his Creator's power display;

And publishes to every land

The work of an Almighty hand.

Soon as the evening shades prevail,

The Moon takes up the wondrous tale;

And nightly to the listening Earth

Repeats the story of her birth:

Whilst all the stars that round her burn,

And all the planets in their turn,

Confirm the tidings as they roll,  

And spread the truth from pole to pole.

What though in solemn silence all

Move round the dark terrestrial ball;

What though nor real voice nor sound

Amidst their radiant orbs be found?  

In Reason's ear they all rejoice,

And utter forth a glorious voice;

For ever singing as they shine,

'The Hand that made us is divine.'

Joseph Addison - Immortality

O Liberty! thou goddess, heavenly bright,

profuse of bliss and pregnant with delight,

Eternal pleasures in thy presence reign,

And smiling Plenty leads thy smiling train.

Eased of her load Subjection grows more light,

And Poverty looks cheerful in thy sight.

Giv'st beauty to the sun and pleasures to the day.

thee, goddess, thee, Britannia's isle adores!

How oft has she exhausted all her stores!

How oft on fields of death thy presence sought,

Nor thinks the mighty prize too dearly bought!

On foreign mountains may the sun refine

the grape's soft juice and mellow it in wine.

With citron groves adorn a distant soil.

And the fat olives swell with floods of oil.

We envy not the warmer clime, that lies

in ten degrees of more indulgent skies;

Nor at the coarseness of our heaven repine,

Though o'er our heads the frozen Pleiads shine.

'Tis Liberty that crowns Britannia's isle,

And makes her barren rocks and her bleak mountains shine 

Sir Robert Ayton - To His Forsaken Mistress

I do confess thou'rt smooth and fair,

And I might have gone near to love thee,

Had I not found the slightest prayer

That lips could