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Benjamin Britten's Poets: An Anthology of the Poems He Set to Music

Edited by Boris Ford

Imprint: Carcanet Poetry
Publisher: Carcanet Press
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  •        O dear white children casual as birds,
        Playing among the ruined languages,
        So small beside their large confusing words,
        So gay against the greater silences
        Of dreadful things you did.

    W.H. Auden, 'Anthem for St Cecilia's Day',
    for Benjamin Britten

    Now available in paperback.

    Benjamin Britten
    was a great reader of poetry, and poetry profoundly affected his musical genius and style of composition. Friendships and collaborations with writers -- Auden and Forster among them -- left their mark.

    No other composer of songs, not even Schubert or Schumann, set poems of such range and quality. All the 360 poems Britten set are included in this book. They range from Donne's complex 'Holy Sonnets' to the deceptive simplicity of Blake's 'Oh rose thou art sick'. They include anonymous ballads, modern work and poems in other languages (with translations). Full details of the source and use of each poem are given.
    Boris Ford commissioned Benjamin Britten to write the children's opera Noye's Fludde when he was Head of Schools Broadcasting for Independent Television. His distinguished career has included a variety of professional and academic posts. He was general editor of The New Pelican Guide to English Literature and The Cambridge Guide to ... read more
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