Book description
In this series, a contemporary poet selects and introduces a poet
of the past. By their choice of poems and by the personal and critical
reactions they express in their prefaces, the editors offer insights
into their own work as well as providing an accessible and passionate
introduction to the most important poets in our literature. Tyger
Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night: What immortal hand
or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry? -- The Tyger
A painter, poet and engraver, William Blake (1757-1827) was born
in London. Poetical Sketches, his first volume of poetry, was
published in 1783 and was followed by several of his best-known works:
Songs of Innocence (1789), The Book of Thiel (1789), The Marriage of
Heaven and Hell (1790-3), Songs of Experience (1794) and Jerusalem
(1804-20). James Fenton was born in Lincoln in 1949 and educated at
Magdalen College, Oxford where he won the Newdigate Prize for poetry.
He has worked as political journalist, drama critic, book reviewer,
war correspondent, foreign correspondent and columnist. He is a Fellow
of the Royal Society of Literature and was Oxford Professor of Poetry
for the period 1994-99. In 2007, James Fenton was awarded the Queen's
Gold Medal for Poetry.
