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Selected poems
Paperback
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- Book Synopsis
- Isaac Watts (1674-1748) has been sung by almost everyone whose first language is English, but read by only a few.The time has come to challenge that neglect. This book presents a selection of Watts's poems, showing that he was a consummate artist as well as an enthusiast, scholar and populariser.He taught the English people how to worship and enjoy God 'in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs'.He spells out a religion free of sourness, without affectation.His rhetoric is bold, natural and full of joy.Watts was incapable of damning God with faint praise.Art and faith in his poems and hymns are manifestations of the same impulse. Born in Leeds in 1938, GORDON JACKSON was at school with his friend and mentor the poet John Riley, whose work he first printed and published under his Grosseteste Press imprint in 1966.He later published 50 titles of his own work under the Asgill imprint.His working life has been mainly in teacher education, pioneering among other things work on Shakespeare for the primary school. In 1997 Carcanet published The Lincoln Psalter, his Psalm translations.
- About The Author
- Isaac Watts (1674-1748) was born in Southampton, the son of Isaac Watts, a Nonconformist who had been incarcerated on two occasions for his views. Isaac the Younger was educated at King Edward VI School, where he learned Latin, Greek and Hebrew. At home, his talent for rhyme soon became evident. In 1690, since his Nonconformity prevented him from matriculating at either Oxford or Cambridge, he went to the Dissenting Academy at Stoke Newton, then a rural village, where much of his life was centred. He became the pastor of a large Independent Chapel in London, and despite his poor health he also helped trainee preachers, and took work as a private tutor. Like his friend Sir Thomas Abney (Lord Mayor of London 1700-01), Watts held religious views that were unusually non-denominational or ecumenical for a Nonconformist of his time: Watts was more concerned with promoting education and scholarship than with preaching for a particular ministry. When Sir Thomas died, Watts moved permanently with his widow into Abney House, which she had inherited from her brother. Watts lived here permanently until his death, and the nearby island heronry in Hackney Brook was a source of inspiration for the many books and hymns he wrote. He died in Stoke Newington, and was buried in Bunhill Fields, leaving behind him a great religious, educational and literary legacy. His work had been been influential among independents and early religious in his circle; and when he died, his papers were given to Yale University, with which he was connected due to its being founded predominantly by fellow Independents.
- Product Details
-
- ISBN
- 9781857544053
- Format
- Paperback
- Publisher
- FyfieldBooks, (29 April 1999)
- Number of Pages
- 85
- Weight
- 144 grams
- Language
- English
- Dimensions
- 197 x 131 x 8 mm
- Series:
- See all books in this series
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