Collected Poems: Volume Two

Alfred Noyes wrote poetry that meant to be heard, not merely read. This second volume gathers work from across his long career, revealing a poet of remarkable range: the mist-shrouded valleys and wild orchards of his early romantic vision, the swashbuckling ballads that made him a household name, and the harder, wiser verses born from a century's upheavals. Noyes possessed what few poets ever achieve, a gift for narrative that pulls readers headlong intoimagined worlds, whether a highwayman riding through moonlit countryside or soldiers waiting in the trenches. His imagery stays with you: blood on a rose, wind in the wheat, the terrible beauty of fields torn by war. Once the most widely read poet in the English-speaking world, Noyes fell from fashion, but his best work retains a power that newer modes cannot replicate. These are poems to read aloud, to memorize, to return to. For anyone who believes poetry should stir as much as it speaks, this collection offers rediscovery.