The Complete Poetical Works: Volume IGeorge Crabbe (1754-1832) was acclaimed by his contemporaries as a major poet. The leading reviewer of the day, Francis Jeffrey, paid tribute to his powerful originality. Byron pronounced him 'Though Nature's sternest Painter, yet the best'. Sir Walter Scott, and Jane Austen, who declared that she would have married him, were among his many admirers. In our own time both critics and poets have praised his penetrating insights into human motivation, his realism, and his unique use of landscape as a setting for his poems and verse tales; and he is well known as the author of Peter Grimes, on which Benjamin Britten based his opera. Yet there has not been a collected edition of his verse since A.W. Ward's, some eighty years ago. The present edition draws on much recently discovered manuscript material in this country and in the USA, including a finished manuscript, with proofs, of Tales of the Hall, and manuscripts of four unpublished tales and of a number of shorter poems. Close attention has been paid to the evolution of the text from the rough pencil drafts in Crabbe's notebooks to the final version on the printed page. An extensive Commentary relates both to the literary context and to Crabbe's many observations on the social scene of his day. |
Contents
VOLUME I | xix |
The Parish Register | xxiii |
GENERAL INTRODUCTION | xxv |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
Aldeburgh antient behold Belvoir Castle blest Borough Bosom breast charms Crabbe's Dæmons Dawson Turner dead Death Deeds delight doubt dread Dreams Duke of Rutland dull edition edns fair Fame Fate fear feel fled Foes Folly Friends gentle George Crabbe give Glemham Hall Grace grave Grief Hall happy Heart Honour Hope humble kind labour Lady's Magazine Letters Library live look Lord lov'd Love Maid manuscript Mary Leadbeater Mind Muse Muston never Night notebooks Nymphs o'er pain Passions Peace Pity plac'd pleas'd Pleasure poems Poet poor praise Pride printed published Race rage rest rise round Rutland scenes scorn Shame sigh sing Slave smile Song Sorrow Sotheby's Soul Spirit Stathern Suffolk Swain thee thine thou thought trembling Trowbridge Truth twas Vale of Belvoir verse vex'd Vice Virtue wretched Youth