Underwoods is a collection of poems by Robert Louis Stevenson published in 1887. It comprises two books, Book I with 38 poems in English, Book II with 16 poems in Scots. He says in the initial note that "I am from the Lothians myself; it is there I heard the language spoken about my childhood; and it is in the drawling Lothian voice that I repeat it to myself."
The dedication is to "a few out of many doctors who have brought me comfort and help." He starts by saying that "There are men and classes of men that stand above the common herd: the soldier, the sailor and the shepherd not infrequently; the artist rarely; rarer still the clergyman; the physician almost as a rule. He is the flower (such as it is) of our civilization ...."
Stevenson mainly relies on English spelling, but touches on Scottish spelling, pridefully creating a "fresh stumbling-block for English readers"
A heroic couplet is a traditional form for English poetry, commonly used in epic and narrative poetry, and consisting of a rhyming pair of lines in iambic pentameter. Use of the heroic couplet was pioneered by Geoffrey Chaucer in the Legend of Good Women and the Canterbury Tales, and generally considered to have been perfected by John Dryden and Alexander Pope in the Restoration Age and early 18th century respectively.
Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as Treasure Island, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Kidnapped and A Child's Garden of Verses.
Sir William Wallace was a Scottish knight who became one of the main leaders during the First War of Scottish Independence.
Hávamál is presented as a single poem in the Codex Regius, a collection of Old Norse poems from the Viking age. A scholarly estimate of Hávamál's age dates the poem to between 900 and 1000 A.D. The poem, itself a combination of numerous shorter poems, is largely gnomic, presenting advice for living, proper conduct and wisdom. It is considered an important source of Old Norse philosophy.
In Irish legend Aibell, also anglicised as Aeval or Eevill) was a Pre-Christian goddess from the Irish mythology of Munster and the guardian spirit of the Dál gCais, the Delbhna, and the Clan Ó Bríen. She was demoted in popular belief, following the Christianisation of Gaelic Ireland, from a goddess to the Fairy Queen ruling over the Celtic Otherworld of Thomond, or north Munster. The entrance to her kingdom was believed to be at Craig Liath, the grey rock, a hill overlooking the Shannon about two miles north of Killaloe. Aibell also had a lover and a magic harp. In Irish folklore she was turned into a white cat by her sister, Clíodhna and is alleged to have appeared in a dream on the night before the Battle of Clontarf to Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, and prophesied his imminent death and that whichever of his sons he saw first would succeed him. In Modern literature in Irish, Aibell appears in many immortal 18th century Aisling poems composed in Munster Irish. Aibell also serves as the main antagonist in the very famous long comic poem by Brian Merriman, in which she is the presiding judge during an Otherworldly lawsuit, in which the women of Ireland are suing the men for refusing to marry and father children.
Lallans, is a term that was traditionally used to refer to the Scots language as a whole. However, more recent interpretations assume it refers to the dialects of south and central Scotland, while Doric, a term once used to refer to Scots dialects in general, is now generally seen to refer to the Mid Northern Scots dialects spoken in the north-east of Scotland.
"Song of Myself" is a poem by Walt Whitman (1819–1892) that is included in his work Leaves of Grass. It has been credited as "representing the core of Whitman's poetic vision."
William Cowper was an English poet and Anglican hymnwriter.
William Ernest Henley was an English poet, writer, critic and editor. Though he wrote several books of poetry, Henley is remembered most often for his 1875 poem "Invictus". A fixture in London literary circles, the one-legged Henley might have been the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's character Long John Silver, while his young daughter Margaret Henley inspired J. M. Barrie's choice of the name Wendy for the heroine of his play Peter Pan (1904).
John Orley Allen Tate, known professionally as Allen Tate, was an American poet, essayist, social commentator, and poet laureate from 1943 to 1944. Among his best known works are the poems "Ode to the Confederate Dead" (1928) and "The Mediterranean" (1933), and his only novel The Fathers (1938). He is associated with New Criticism, the Fugitives and the Southern Agrarians.
"If—" is a poem by English poet Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936), written circa 1895 as a tribute to Leander Starr Jameson. It is a literary example of Victorian-era stoicism. The poem, first published in Rewards and Fairies (1910) following the story "Brother Square-Toes", is written in the form of paternal advice to the poet's son, John.
Owain mab Urien was the son of Urien, king of Rheged c. 590, and fought with his father against the Angles of Bernicia. The historical figure of Owain became incorporated into the Arthurian cycle of legends where he is also known as Ywain, Yvain, Ewain or Uwain. In his legendary guise he is the main character in Chrétien de Troyes's Yvain, the Knight of the Lion and the Welsh Romance Owain, or the Lady of the Fountain, which corresponds to Chrétien's poem.
William of Newburgh or Newbury, also known as William Parvus, was a 12th-century English historian and Augustinian canon of Anglo-Saxon descent from Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire.
Jack Prelutsky is an American writer of children's poetry who has published over 50 poetry collections. He served as the first U.S. Children's Poet Laureate from 2006 to 2008 when the Poetry Foundation established the award.
Ian McMillan is an English poet, journalist, playwright, and broadcaster. He is known for his strong and distinctive Yorkshire accent and his incisive, friendly interview style on programmes such as BBC Radio 3's The Verb. He lives in Darfield, the village of his birth.
"Dead Man's Chest" is a fictional sea song, originally from Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island (1883). It was expanded in a poem, titled "Derelict" by Young E. Allison, published in the Louisville Courier-Journal in 1891. It has since been used in many later works of art in various forms.
Demons and Dinosaurs is a 1970 collection of poetry by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, published by Arkham House in an edition of 500 copies. It was de Camp's first book published by Arkham House.
Squire John Trelawney is a supporting character from Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 novel Treasure Island.
Modern Scots comprises the varieties of Scots traditionally spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster, from 1700.
Edward Salisbury Field Jr. was an American author, playwright, artist, poet, and journalist.
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