Publisher Description
The office of poet laureate is a high honor among poets. The honor was first present among the ancient Greeks, whose heroes and poets wore wreaths of laurel in honor of the god Apollo.
Unfortunately no single definitive record exists of the office of Poet Laureate of England. In some form it can be traced back to 1189 and Richard Canonicus, who was employed by Richard I with the title "Versificator Regis." It is said that Geoffrey Chaucer was called poet laureate, being granted in 1389 an annual allowance of wine. However, it is not until 1617 that King James I created the post as it is known today for Ben Jonson, although it appears not to have been a formal appointment. That formality—the title of Poet Laureate as a royal office—was first conferred by letters patent on John Dryden in 1670.
From there we have procession of outstanding writers, among them William Wordsworth, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Alfred Austin, and Edmund Spenser. Collected here, in this second volume, are further works by these great poets.
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About the Authors
William Wordsworth (1770–1850) was an influential English poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped launch the Romantic Age of English literature with the 1798 joint publication of Lyrical Ballads. He was Britain’s Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death in 1850.
Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) was born in Odense, Denmark, the son of a poor shoemaker and a washerwoman. As a young teenager, he became quite well known in Odense as a reciter of drama and as a singer. When he was fourteen, he set off for the capital, Copenhagen, determined to become a national success on the stage. He failed miserably, but made some influential friends in the capital who got him into school to remedy his lack of proper education. In 1829 his first book was published. After that, books came out at regular intervals. His stories began to be translated into English as early as 1846. Since then, numerous editions, and more recently Hollywood songs and Disney cartoons, have helped to ensure the continuing popularity of the stories in the English-speaking world.
About various narrators
James Langton, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, trained as an actor at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and later as a musician at the Guildhall School in London. He has worked in radio, film, and television, also appearing in theater in England and on Broadway. He is also a professional musician who led the internationally renowned Pasadena Roof Orchestra from 1996 to 2002.