Elizabethan Sonnet Cycles

ELIZABETHAN SONNET CYCLES

Five Major Elizabethan Sonnet Sequences by Samuel Daniel, Michael Drayton, Sir Philip Sidney, William Shakespeare and Edmund Spenser.

A collection of five major sonnet sequences from the Elizabethan era by some of the great poets of the period: Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, Michael Drayton, Samuel Daniel and William Shakespeare. Each sonnet cycle is love poetry, and some of the finest verse in the English language: Sidney's 'Astrophel and Stella', Daniel's 'Delia', Drayton's 'Idea', Spenser's 'Amoretti', and Shakespeare's 'Sonnets'.

This edition prints each poem cycle on its own, without notes or editorial intrusions. And each poem has a page to itself, rather than being crammed together. It's a useful edition for students.

MICHAEL DRAYTON, SONNET 4, FROM 'IDEA':

BRIGHT STAR of beauty, on whose eyelids sit | A thousand nymph-like and enamoured graces, | The goddesses of memory and wit, | Which there in order take their several places; | In whose dear bosom, sweet delicious love | Lays down his quiver which he once did bear, | Since he that blessed paradise did prove, | And leaves his mother's lap to sport him there | Let others strive to entertain with words | My soul is of a braver mettle made; | I hold that vile which vulgar wit affords; | In me's that faith which time cannot invade. | Let what I praise be still made good by you; | Be you most worthy whilst I am most true!

Includes the illustrations of the poets, and notes on further reading. The book is now in a hardback edition.

British Poets Series. Bibliography & illustrations. 536 pages. ISBN 9781861714473
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