Paperback, 128pp, 8.5x5.5ins. Shearsman Classics Series Vol. 1
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Alexander Barclay, Humfrey Gifford, Richard Carew, Sir Walter Ralegh, Sir Arthur Gorges, George Peele, Anne Dowriche, Joseph Hall, John Ford, William Browne, Robert Herrick, William Strode, Sidney Godolphin, Mary, Lady Chudleigh, John Gay, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. All of these are poets born in the two westernmost counties of England, or — like Hall and Herrick — poets who were active there.

In time we stretch from the very beginning of the 16th century until the early 19th century. We begin with Barclay, a priest at Ottery St. Mary, and we close with Coleridge, the son of a priest at Ottery St. Mary, his birthplace. We have names that echo down through the ages (Ralegh), great writers central to the development of English poetry (Herrick, Coleridge), we have divines (Hall, Herrick), we have a cavalier (Godolphin), we have a balladeer (Gay), we have under-recognised talents (Gorges, Strode, Browne, Chudleigh), we have virtuoso translators (Barclay, Carew) and we have two women poets (Dowriche, Chudleigh), one of whom influenced Marlowe and another whose work was admired by Dryden.

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