Hollow Palaces by Kevin J. Gardner (Hardback)

£29.99
Out of stock
Product Ref. (e.g. ISBN, SKU)
9781800856745
Published:
01 Sep 2021
Format:
Hardback
Number of pages:
400 pages
Dimensions:
239x241x29mm
Weight:
0.804kgs
As a genre of poetry, the country house poem was born in the seventeenth century. As English country house society itself grew in prominence, the poem of commemoration diminished in popularity; not until the Edwardian era, when the country house as an institution began to wane, was there a renewed interest in country house poetry. As the power and influence of landed society dwindled, the country house began to haunt the English literary imagination, and our poets found in its dereliction a frequent subject and theme. This book gathers modern and contemporary country house poems into one collection. Poets representing a diversity of class, race, gender, and generation offer a wide variety of perspectives: stately exteriors and interiors, crumbling ruins, gardens both wild and cultivated, and the voices of noble owners, servants, and curious visitors.

The 'country house poem' was born in the seventeenth century as a fruitful way of flattering potential patrons. But the genre's popularity faded - ironically, just as 'country house society' was emerging. It was only when the power and influence of the landed classes had all but ebbed away that poets returned to the theme, attracted perhaps by the buildings' irresistible dereliction, but equally by their often very personal histories. This is the first complete anthology of modern country house poems, and it shows just how far (as Simon Jenkins points out in his Foreword) poems can 'penetrate the souls of buildings'. Over 160 distinguished poets representing a diversity of class, race, gender, and generation offer fascinating perspectives on stately exteriors and interiors, gardens both wild and cultivated, crumbling ruins and the extraordinary secrets they hide. There are voices of all kinds, whether it's Edith Sitwell recreating her childhood, W. B. Yeats and Wendy Cope pondering Lissadell, or Simon Armitage's labourer confronting the Lady who's 'got the lot'. We hear from noble landowners and loyal (or rebellious) servants, and from many an inquisitive day-tripper. The book's dominant note is elegiac, yet comedy, satire, even strains of Gothic can be heard among these potent reflections. Hollow Palaces reminds us how poets can often be the most perceptive of guides to radical changes in society.

The book is illustrated by Rosie Greening.

More Information
Number of pages 400

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