A Book of Old Ballads — Complete

These are the songs your ancestors sang before there were books to record them. Assembled from the oral traditions of England and Scotland, this collection preserves the raw, unvarnished emotions of people who lived, loved, and died centuries before us. Here you'll find tales of forbidden love and cruel betrayal, of brave fools and cunning heroes, of death by blade and death by broken heart. The verses move with the rhythm of a heartbeat, direct and devastating, spare in language but vast in feeling. Beverley Nichols's introduction makes the case that these ballads possess something modern poetry often loses: an outward gaze, a communal voice, a patriotism and passion untarnished by irony. Whether you read them as cultural artifact or pure poetry, these are the roots from which so much English and American literature grew. They have survived this long for a reason.