A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse

By Amy Levy

"A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse" by Amy Levy. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Good Press
• Release date: Dec 2, 2019
• ISBN: 4057664573339

Amy Levy

Amy Levy (1861-1889) was a British poet and novelist. Born in Clapham, London to a Jewish family, she was the second oldest of seven children. Levy developed a passion for literature in her youth, writing a critique of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh and publishing her first poem by the age of fourteen. After excelling at Brighton and Hove High School, Levy became the first Jewish student at Newnham College, Cambridge, where she studied for several years without completing her degree. Around this time, she befriended such feminist intellectuals as Clementina Black, Ellen Wordsworth Darwin, Eleanor Marx, and Olive Schreiner. As a so-called “New Woman” and lesbian, much of Levy’s literary work explores the concerns of nineteenth century feminism. Levy was a romantic partner of Violet Paget, a British storyteller and scholar of Aestheticism who wrote using the pseudonym Vernon Lee. Her first novel, The Romance of a Shop (1888), is powerful story of sisterhood and perseverance in the face of poverty and marginalization. Levy is also known for such poetry collections as A Minor Poet and Other Verse (1884) and A London Plane-Tree and Other Verse (1889). At the age of 27, after a lifetime of depression exacerbated by relationship trouble and her increasing deafness, Levy committed suicide at her parents’ home in Endsleigh Gardens.

Book preview

Amy Levy

A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse

Published by Good Press, 2022

[e-mail]

EAN 4057664573339

Table of Contents

Illustrations.

A London Plane-Tree.

A London Plane-Tree.

London in July.

A March Day in London.

Ballade of an Omnibus.

Ballade of a Special Edition.

Straw in the Street.

Between the Showers.

Out of Town.

The Piano-Organ.

London Poets.

The Village Garden.

Love, Dreams, & Death.

New Love, New Life.

Impotens.

Youth and Love.

The Dream.

On the Threshold.

The Birch-Tree at Loschwitz.

In the Night.

Borderland.

At Dawn.

Last Words.

June.

A Reminiscence.

The Sequel to A Reminiscence.

In the Mile End Road.

Contradictions.

Twilight.

In September.

Moods and Thoughts.

The Old House.

Lohengrin.

Alma Mater.

In the Black Forest.

Captivity.

The Two Terrors.

The Promise of Sleep.

The Last Judgment.

Felo de Se.

The Lost Friend.

Cambridge in the Long.

To Vernon Lee.

The Old Poet.

On the Wye in May.

Oh, is it Love?

In the Nower.

The End of the Day.

Odds and Ends.

A Wall Flower.

The First Extra.

At a Dinner Party.

Philosophy.

A Game of Lawn Tennis.

To E.

Illustrations.

Table of Contents

A London Plane-Tree.

Table of Contents

A London Plane-Tree.

Table of Contents

GREEN is the plane-tree in the square,

The other trees are brown;

They droop and pine for country air;

The plane-tree loves the town.

Here from my garret-pane, I mark

The plane-tree bud and blow,

Shed her recuperative bark,

And spread her shade below.

Among her branches, in and out,

The city breezes play;

The dun fog wraps her round about;

Above, the smoke curls grey.

Others the country take for choice,

And hold the town in scorn;

But she has listened to the voice