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Two of Henry Newbolt's poems 'Vitai Lampada' and 'Drake's Drum' became staples of poetry anthologies and were known and recited by every school-boy. His poetry helped in constructing ideas around late Victorian/Edwardian imperial manliness. In this respect, Newbolt's work mirrors that of W.E. Henley, who also wrote poems which became part of a national lexicon and celebrated empire and the virtues of a stiff upper lip attitude to life. The Collected Poetry is the first critical scholarly edition of his work. Despite in his own time being a well-known and immensely popular poet, Newbolt has since fallen into comparative critical neglect bar Susan Chitty's (1997) biography and Victoria Jackson's (1994) study. The aim here is to place the poet's literary work in a broader context that has hitherto not been addressed. Comparison with other literary works of the time reveal the mind-set of the period. But of particular interest is Newbolt's active public life. He contributed widely to
government committees and debates on education, as well as working for the propaganda bureau in World War One, advising on the Irish question. The possible links between his pedagogical interests and the forcefulness of his poetic verse are investigated in terms of the massive socio-economic changes underway in the British Isles. The social forces putting education of the masses at the forefront of cultural activity is a primary theme of John Howlett's substantive Introduction to the work. This work is an essential research tool for Victorian and Edwardian cultural studies.
