It really is extraordinary. I received my copy last Wednesday and I've already read through it three times. Needless to say, it is wonderful in both form and content. I'm very pleased to have subscribed to Headless Poet for the full year, and also hopeful that at least a few of the upcoming pamphlets will follow the model Victoria has set here. It is rare to find an anthology that lives up to its name and gathers a small and dazzling selection of beauties to be read and re-read rather than an overwhelming bushelful of dross to thump on a schoolroom table. And the anthology's piercing focus on what Victoria calls "useful" poetry from that great period in English verse shows how deeply emotional the didactic mode can be, while also highlighting its painful absence in contemporary verse. As a collection, it is a beautiful little triumph, and I look forward to re-reading it again.
This pamphlet is a must like all of VM!
Thank you!
It really is extraordinary. I received my copy last Wednesday and I've already read through it three times. Needless to say, it is wonderful in both form and content. I'm very pleased to have subscribed to Headless Poet for the full year, and also hopeful that at least a few of the upcoming pamphlets will follow the model Victoria has set here. It is rare to find an anthology that lives up to its name and gathers a small and dazzling selection of beauties to be read and re-read rather than an overwhelming bushelful of dross to thump on a schoolroom table. And the anthology's piercing focus on what Victoria calls "useful" poetry from that great period in English verse shows how deeply emotional the didactic mode can be, while also highlighting its painful absence in contemporary verse. As a collection, it is a beautiful little triumph, and I look forward to re-reading it again.
Is it possible to order this pamphlet from (and to) the US?
Alternatively, I could just keep rereading this particular substack.
I ordered mine to USA
Let me see how that goes, thanks.
Viola! 🎻 Luckily I have a Costco card because that is the only one it would take! But to quote one of Henry’s favorites,
All’s well that ends well.
These are lovely!
very interesting and useful, will follow up, thank you.
Thanks, other reading that one might interested in is the Penguin book of Renaissance Verse