My name is Parrot, a bird of Paradise...
With my beak bent, my little wanton eye.
With my feathers fresh as is the emerald green,
About my neck a circulet like the rich ruby,
My little legs, my feet both feat and clean,
I am a minion to wait upon a queen
    from 'Speak, Parrot'

John Skelton (1464?-1529) is the first great modern English poet. Immensely proud of his poetic calling, he celebrates in his poems the language itself, in all its richness. He wrote in a vigorous vernacular, taking literary English out of the medieval world and enriching it with new forms and tones. Gerald Hammond's notes and glossary illuminate Skelton's works for the modern reader - but Hammond warns readers to keep their wits about them. Skelton is a poet of verbal ambushes, who still has the power to surprise and shock with his formal inventiveness and his indictments of church, scholars and state. His tone can be tender, insinuating, savage and erotic; satire, parody, lyricism and allegory abound.

Table of Contents

Introduction



Woefully Arrayed

My Darling Dear, My Daisy Flower

The Ancient Acquaintance, Madam, Between Us Twain

Mannerly Margery Milk and Ale

Womanhood, Wanton, Ye Want

from The Bouge of Court

Philip Sparrow

The Tunning of Elinour Rumming

Speak, Parrot

from The Garland of Laurel



Notes

Glossary