{"product_id":"london-a-history-in-verse-9780674065680","title":"London: A History in Verse","description":"\u003cp\u003eCalled the flour of Cities all  London has long been understood through the poetry it has inspired. Now poet Mark Ford has assembled the most capacious and wide-ranging anthology of poems about London to date  from Chaucer to Wordsworth to the present day  providing a chronological tour of urban life and of English literature.  Nearly all of the major poets of British literature have left some poetic record of London: Chaucer  Spenser  Shakespeare  Donne  Milton  Dryden  Pope  Johnson  Wordsworth  Keats  Byron  and T. S. Eliot. Ford goes well beyond these figures  however  to gather significant verse of all kinds  from Jacobean city comedies to nursery rhymes  from topical satire to anonymous ballads. The result is a cultural history of the city in verse  one that represents all classes of Londons population over some seven centuries  mingling the high and low  the elegant and the salacious  the courtly and the street smart. Many of the poems respond to large events in the citys historythe beheading of Charles I  the Great Fire  the Blitzbut the majority reflect the quieter routines and anxieties of everyday life through the centuries.  Fords selections are arranged chronologically  thus preserving a sense of the strata of the capitals history. An introductory essay by the poet explores in detail the cultural  political  and aesthetic significance of the verse inspired by this great city. The result is a volume as rich and vibrant and diverse as London itself.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45792617201717,"sku":"ByrdShop_0674065689","price":96.57,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780674065680.jpg?v=1784756149","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/london-a-history-in-verse-9780674065680","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}