New book #2: “Story Lines: A Book of Narrative Verse”

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(This is the second book announcement post—first one was here.)

I am pleased to also announce the publication of Story Lines: A Book of Narrative Verse, also edited by myself. This is a collection of narrative poems I like to read and reread, including several I’ve talked about here over the past couple years—bundled together so that others can readily read them as well. Poets range from Chaucer to Masefield, writing everything from rousing adventures to domestic dramas—by turns heroic, comic, tragic, romantic, enigmatic, mythic, and erotic.

The glossing is more comprehensive than in Important Beyond All This, including endnotes with potted biographies and brief critical comments. Most selections are between 100 and 1200 lines (good single-sitting lengths), with a couple shorter and longer ones to round things out. The full list:

The Miller’s Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400) (tr. Coghill)
The Reeve’s Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400) (tr. Coghill)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Anonymous 14th century (tr. Weston)
ETA 3rd ed, Sir Orfeo, Anonymous 14th century (tr. Weston)
Tam Lin, Anonymous 16th century
Hero and Leander, Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)
Venus and Adonis, William Shakespeare (1564-1612)
Endymion and Phœbe, Michael Drayton (1563-1631)
Nymphidia, Michael Drayton (1563-1631)
The Island Voyage, John Donne (1573-1631)
Sir Patrick Spens, Anonymous 17th century
Oberon’s Evening, Robert Herrick (1591-1674)
Ballad upon a Wedding, John Suckling (1609-1641)
Baucis and Philemon, John Dryden (1631-1700)
The Disappointment, Aphra Behn (c.1640-1689)
The Hermit, Thomas Parnell (1679-1718)
Thomas the Rhymer, Anonymous 18th century
The Lady of the Black Tower, Mary Robinson (c.1757-1800)
Book of Thel, William Blake (1757-1827)
Tam o’ Shanter, Robert Burns (1759-1796)
Jacqueline, Samuel Rogers (1763-1855)
The Eve of St. John, Walter Scott (1771-1832)
Kilmeny, James Hogg (1770-1835)
Mador of the Moor, James Hogg (1770-1835)
Paradise and the Peri, Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
The Story of Rimini, Leigh Hunt (1784-1859)
Beppo, George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824)
Mazeppa, George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824)
The Dream, George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824)
The Witch of Atlas, Percy Shelley (1792-1822)
The Eve of St. Agnes, John Keats (1795-1821)
La Belle Dame sans Merci, John Keats (1795-1821)
The Culprit Fay, Joseph Drake (1795-1820)
Godiva, John Moultrie (1799-1874)
The Dream of Eugene Aram, Thomas Hood (1799-1845)
The Fairy of the Fountain, Letitia Landon (1802-1838)
Snow-Bound, John Whittier (1807-1892)
Paul Revere’s Ride, Henry Longfellow (1807-1882)
Grandmother’s Story of Bunker Hill Battle, Oliver Holmes (1809-1894)
OEnone, Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)
The Voyage of Maeldune, Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)
The Walker of the Snow, Charles Shanly (1811-1875)
The King of Brentford’s Testament, William Thackeray (1811-1863)
The Glove, Robert Browning (1812-1889)
My Last Duchess, Robert Browning (1812-1889)
“Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”, Robert Browning (1812-1889)
Amours de Voyage, Arthur Clough (1819-1861)
Rhœcus, James Lowell (1819-1891)
Sohrab and Rustum, Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)
Guy Vernon, John Trowbridge (1827-1916)
The Witch’s Last Ride, Emily Pfeiffer (1827-1890)
The White Ship, Dante Rossetti (1828-1882)
Widderin’s Race, Paul Hayne (1830-1886)
Goblin Market, Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)
The Hunting of the Snark, Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)
Atalanta’s Race, William Morris (1834-1896)
The Haystack in the Flood, William Morris (1834-1896)
A Misunderstanding, Agnes Machar (1837-1927)
Laus Veneris, Algernon Swinburne (1837-1909)
A Death in the Bush, Henry Kendall (1839-1882)
A Trampwoman’s Tragedy, Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)
The Burghers, Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)
Malcolm’s Katie, Isabella Crawford (1846-1887)
Ticonderoga, Robert Stevenson (1850-1894)
Tannhäuser, Emma Lazarus (1849-1887)
Charmides, Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
The Ballad of Reading Gaol, Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
Ballad of the Bird-Bride, Rosamund Marriott Watson (1860-1911)
A Ballad of the Were-Wolf, Rosamund Marriott Watson (1860-1911)
Xantippe, Amy Levy (1861-1889)
Ojistoh, Pauline Johnson (1861-1913)
The Yule Guest, Bliss Carman (1861-1929)
ETA 2nd ed., Hell Gate, A. E. Housman (1859-1936)
The Man From Snowy River, “Banjo” Paterson (1864-1941)
The Old Age of Queen Maeve, William Yeats (1865-1939)
Tomlinson, Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
The Ballad of East and West, Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
The Code, Robert Frost (1874-1963)
Home Burial, Robert Frost (1874-1963)
The Cremation of Sam McGee, Robert Service (1874-1958)
The Shooting of Dan McGrew, Robert Service (1874-1958)
Pickthorn Manor, Amy Lowell (1874-1925)
Sword Blades and Poppy Seed, Amy Lowell (1874-1925)
Reynard the Fox, John Masefield (1878-1967)
ETA 3rd ed, The Horse Thief, William Rose Benét (1886–1950)
The Highwayman, Alfred Noyes (1880-1958)

For whatever it’s worth, that’s 14 by women and 22 by non-Brits (though the latter’s a fuzzy number given immigration). Arrangement is almost chronological by birth: I jiggered the order a couple times where it made for better transitions—after all, this is a reading anthology, and it darn well ought to read well.

Available cheaply from all the usual fine ebook purveyors: Kindle | Nook | Kobo | Smashwords | et cetera

(Reviews are appreciated. So are mistake/oops/gotcha reports. Review copies can be arranged.)

---L.

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