Aidan
master brummie
The Poly-Olbion is a topographical poem describing England and Wales. Written by Michael Drayton and published in 1612, it was reprinted with a second part in 1622. Drayton had been working on the project since at least 1598.
The poem is divided into thirty songs, written in alexandrine couplets, consisting in total of almost 15,000 lines of verse. Drayton intended to compose a further part to cover Scotland, but no part of this work is known to have survived. Each song describes between one and three counties, describing their topography, traditions and histories. Copies were illustrated with maps of each county, drawn by William Hole, whereon places were depicted anthropomorphically.
The first book was accompanied by historical summaries written by John Selden. The work is almost never read as a whole, but is an important source for the period. The reason is that it is difficult and barren in the extreme. It was, he tells us, a "Herculean toil" to him to compose it, and we are conscious of the effort. The metre in which it is composed, a couplet of alexandrines, like the French classical measure, is wholly unsuited to the English language, and becomes excessively wearisome to the reader, who forgets the learning and ingenuity of the poet in labouring through the harsh and overgrown lines. His historical poems, which he was constantly rewriting and improving, are believed by many to be much more interesting, and often rise to a true poetic eloquence.
Warwickshire is covered between Songs 12-14. Song 13 is Drayton's main description of Warwickshire, "the hart of England . . . My Native Country." https://books.google.com/books?id=Gwns4YJl5CQC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA212-IA1#v=onepage&q&f=false Opening personal comments and supreme praise for Arden Forest are followed by four set pieces, with very little of the usual connective survey. A long excursion into Arden names its birds, dramatizes the hunting of deer, and describes the retired life of a herb-gatherer/hermit. The history of Coventry (with references to Ursula's virgins and Lady Godiva) is the occasion for a panegyric upon Ann Goodere, the woman Drayton honored throughout his career. As Guy's Cliffe is reached, a short song lists Guy of Warwick's famous deeds. Red Horse Vale boasts of her good qualities in comparison to those of other valleys and complains that she has been neglected, "as all noble things," by "the wretched time."
The section opens with the county map showing the valley of the river Avon and the main towns of Coventry and Warwick. The spirits of the rivers, including the Avon & Rea are shown as part of the county legend, between the main centres of population in Coventry, Warwick and Tamworth. The modern city of Birmingham did not become a major settlement until the industrial revolution in the eighteenth century, and does not figure in the Elizabethan county map although (fortunately) p.256 mentions Bermingham in relation to the Roman Roads (Icknield, Ricknield, Watling St & Fosse Way).
Can anyone spot any other bits of interest please, anyone studied it perchance?
The poem is divided into thirty songs, written in alexandrine couplets, consisting in total of almost 15,000 lines of verse. Drayton intended to compose a further part to cover Scotland, but no part of this work is known to have survived. Each song describes between one and three counties, describing their topography, traditions and histories. Copies were illustrated with maps of each county, drawn by William Hole, whereon places were depicted anthropomorphically.
The first book was accompanied by historical summaries written by John Selden. The work is almost never read as a whole, but is an important source for the period. The reason is that it is difficult and barren in the extreme. It was, he tells us, a "Herculean toil" to him to compose it, and we are conscious of the effort. The metre in which it is composed, a couplet of alexandrines, like the French classical measure, is wholly unsuited to the English language, and becomes excessively wearisome to the reader, who forgets the learning and ingenuity of the poet in labouring through the harsh and overgrown lines. His historical poems, which he was constantly rewriting and improving, are believed by many to be much more interesting, and often rise to a true poetic eloquence.
Warwickshire is covered between Songs 12-14. Song 13 is Drayton's main description of Warwickshire, "the hart of England . . . My Native Country." https://books.google.com/books?id=Gwns4YJl5CQC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA212-IA1#v=onepage&q&f=false Opening personal comments and supreme praise for Arden Forest are followed by four set pieces, with very little of the usual connective survey. A long excursion into Arden names its birds, dramatizes the hunting of deer, and describes the retired life of a herb-gatherer/hermit. The history of Coventry (with references to Ursula's virgins and Lady Godiva) is the occasion for a panegyric upon Ann Goodere, the woman Drayton honored throughout his career. As Guy's Cliffe is reached, a short song lists Guy of Warwick's famous deeds. Red Horse Vale boasts of her good qualities in comparison to those of other valleys and complains that she has been neglected, "as all noble things," by "the wretched time."
The section opens with the county map showing the valley of the river Avon and the main towns of Coventry and Warwick. The spirits of the rivers, including the Avon & Rea are shown as part of the county legend, between the main centres of population in Coventry, Warwick and Tamworth. The modern city of Birmingham did not become a major settlement until the industrial revolution in the eighteenth century, and does not figure in the Elizabethan county map although (fortunately) p.256 mentions Bermingham in relation to the Roman Roads (Icknield, Ricknield, Watling St & Fosse Way).
Can anyone spot any other bits of interest please, anyone studied it perchance?
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