A. W. (poet)
The anonymous poet A.W. is responsible for the long poem "", printed in , a volume issued in 1602 by two brothers, and Walter Davison.[1] In the Rapsody the poem is ascribed to Francis Davison, but in Davison's own manuscript, to "A. W.". Not only the eight rhyme-endings, but the actual words that compose them, are the same in each of eight stanzas, a virtuoso display.
The mysterious "A.W." has never been identified but the songs of "A.W." found places in many anthologies and song-books of the early seventeenth century.
References[]
- ^ Ward, Adolphus William; Waller, Alfred Rayney; Trent, William Peterfield; Erskine, John; Sherman, Stuart Pratt; Van Doren, Carl, eds. (1907–21). "VI. The Song-Books and Miscellanies". A Poetical Rapsody; Francis Davison; "A.W."; Sir Edward Dyer. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. Vol. IV. Prose and Poetry: Sir Thomas North to Michael Drayton. Cambridge, England: University Press. 25. ISBN 1-58734-073-9 – via Bartleby.com.
Further reading[]
- Rollins, Hyder E. “A. W. And ‘A Poetical Rhapsody.’” Studies in Philology, vol. 29, no. 2, 1932, pp. 239–251. JSTOR. Accessed 20 Mar. 2021
- McCarthy, Penny, Pseudonymous Shakespeare: Rioting Language in the Sidney Circle, 2016, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 9781351907965, 1351907964, extended discussion here
Categories:
- 17th-century English poets
- 16th-century births
- English poet stubs