Arthur Hugh Clough: Selected Poems

by Chew,Shirley

• ISBN13: 9780415969376
• ISBN10: 0415969379
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2003-11-21
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Asked what problems most perplexed 'young men at present' Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861) replied 'a growing sense of discrepancy'. His wry and wise poetry explores the tensions of a time of radical changes in the religious, political and literary landscape. He has a sharp eye for absurdity. Clough was a writer of wide interests and liberal sympathies, vividly idiomatic and sensuous, delighting in the detail and variety of everyday life. His technical dexterity is a delight: the poems encompass satire and lyric, dialogue, plot and contemporary reference. His narrative poemhe Bothie of Tober-Na-Vuolichand the epistolaryAmours de Voyagehave the momentum and social precision of novels, capturing a precise image of the Victorian world of the 1840s. This volume includes a generous selection of the full range of Clough's poetry, with a detailed introduction and annotations by Shirley Chew.

Table of Contents

Chronological Table	7	(2)
Introduction	9	(26)
A Note on the Text	35	(2)
SHORTER POEMS
Sic Itur	37	(1)
Qui Laborat, Orat	38	(1)
`Why should I say I see the things I see not?'	39	(2)
`Duty -- that's to say, complying'	41	(1)
Natura Naturans	42	(3)
`Is it true, ye gods, who treat us'	45	(1)
Epi-Strauss-ium	46	(1)
Jacob's Wives	46	(5)
The Latest Decalogue	51	(1)
In the Great Metropolis	51	(1)
Easter Day (Naples, 1849)	52	(5)
`It fortifies my soul to know'	57	(1)
`To spend uncounted years of pain'	57	(1)
`Say not, the struggle nought availeth'	58	(1)
Peschiera	58	(2)
Alteram Partem	60	(1)
`On grass, on gravel, in the sun'	61	(2)
`Ye flags of Piccadilly'	63	(1)
`Where lies the land to which the ship would go?'	64	(1)
`That out of sight is out of mind'	64	(1)
`Upon the water, in the boat'	65	(2)
The Bothie of Tober-Na-Vuolich	67	(60)
Amours de Voyage	127	(54)
from Dipsychus	181	(30)
Notes	211	(28)
Select Bibliography	239