Edmund Waller Books

I had read little Cowley and Waller (but not Oldham at all) until I encountered this Penguin collection titled Selected Poems of Abraham Cowley, Edmund Waller, and John Oldham. The introduction and extensive notes by Julia Griffin were especially helpful.

Without her explanatory notes, I doubt that I would have fully appreciated the significance of these lesser known poets. Griffin paints a disturbing portrait of seventeenth century England, a country in turmoil and civil war, and then clearly illustrates how the poetry of Cowley, Waller, and Oldham was shaped by (and reflected) this complex period.

In looking about for traces of Cowley in anthologies and biographies of poets that I had previously read, I stumbled upon Michael Schmidt's criticism in his massive "Lives of the Poets". Apparently Cowley had the temerity to describe Chaucer as "a dry, old-fashioned wit, not worth reviving". Schmidt pointedly asks, "What is our opinion of Cowley?"

Cowley was obviously wrong about Chaucer and I believe that Schmidt was wrong about Abraham Cowley. Cowley is not a Shakespeare, nor a Milton, nor a Marvell. But Cowley warrants familiarity. His poetry makes good reading, its quality is even, and some lines are memorable. My favorites include Against Fruition, On the Death of Sir Anthony Van Dyck, Drinking and the Grasshopper (both playful translations of Greek poetry), the respectful poem To Mr. Hobbes (the English philosopher), Lot's Wife, the humorous The Country Mouse, and the more serious The Country Life.

The lives of Edmund Waller and Abraham Cowley overlapped, both became embroiled in civil war politics and were exiled to France, were aware of each other's poetry, but apparently were only acquaintances. On occasion Abraham Cowley and Edmund Waller wrote poetry on identical topics - the death of Anthony Van Dyck, poems debating pros and cons of sexual fruition in courtship, tribute to the repairing of Somerset house, and poetry on the pleasure of drinking - thus making direct comparisons easier. I usually preferred Cowley, but I liked both, and enjoyed the opportunity to compare decidedly different approaches.

The third poet, John Oldham, lived in poverty and was unable to find reliable patronage. Griffin argues that Oldham's anger fostered some of his best poetry. I found his unrelenting criticism to be somewhat vindictive, harsh, distasteful, and eventually tiring. I never quite finished reading the section on Oldham.

Many anthologies offer useful footnotes, or other explanatory notes, but few are as complete and interesting as those compiled by Julia Griffin. I developed a habit of first reading Griffin's notes, ranging from a short paragraph to a full page, before engaging a poem by Cowley, Waller, or Oldham. Her notes helped me appreciate the historical context as well as clarifying poetic imagery, classical references, archaic terms, and topical references.

Update August, 2007: I recently encountered several quotes from Edmund Waller's poetry in The Man of Mode, a Restoration comedy of manners by George Etherege. The main character, the witty, rakish Dorimant, was forever quoting Waller, a trait that was apparently shared by the boisterous Earl of Rochester, one of Etherege's close companions.

"A safe sweet and secure present for Valentine's day or any special occasion. If you cannot read poetry aloud with conviction then share this audio version with your beloved."

I love listening to this cassette while I drive! I think the commentary is first rate, insightful and learned. I find the readers, who are generally great poets in their own right, sensitive and the readings clear and nuanced.

Every review here is correct. The readers are amazingly inept. It's hard to believe that the publisher thought this was working. Any average, passionate, good reader would have done so much better. It's very sad. I really wanted to like this work.

In this age of sight and sound, one might hope for a renewed interest in poetry read aloud. After all, your average Ipod can store all the world's great poetry. Any such prospect will quickly be extinguished if there are many productions as bad as this one. At first I thought the readers had been chosen in accordance with some manic diversity template, without the slightest concern for whether they could actually read poetry with even minimal competence. In fact, this project was not ruined by political correctness (though that would be typical these days). Instead, the readers are poets themselves. This is a perennially tempting, and invariably bad, idea. The gift of writing poetry is utterly distinct from the gift of reading it. (Perhaps this is the one arena where the deconstructionists are right: here, the "reader" is as important as the writer.) The truths, and the feelings embodied in these poems would be far better conveyed by professional actors or readers; o for a Derek Jacoby, or a Kenneth Branagh, or a Michael York, to substitute for these awful readers. Give these discs to your child in high school if you want to ensure that he or she will never, ever want to read, or hear, another poem.

I can't believe that anyone found a good word to say about this production of poetic vandalism. It's more than bad, it's criminal,and I, for one, would certainly agree that some of the readers sound as if they might have recently escaped from some institution. How bad is it? Well, I've bought more than one set, which might sound contradictory. However, the reason that one set wasn't enough is that I keep giving my cassettes away as warnings, as jokes, and just to share what must be the absolutely worst set of readings ever recorded. This, of course, means that I have to replace them, because something this bad is precious. Anyway, to be more specific, the problem is with the reading of the poems. To be fair, the best of the of the lot reach mediocrity, but the worst....well, they bring a new meaning to "apalling." Some ot the readers do try, and some of them have a vague idea of how to read poetry, but some of them, one with a Pulitizer prize for poetry! sound like they're reading the yellow pages in a language they don't understand. Do yourself a favor. Unless you delight in the perverse, or would like to have something to contribute to the Guiness Book of Records, don't buy this set.