"I thought of Nature's loveliest scenes;
And with Memory I was there."
- Dorothy Wordsworth
I'M very happy to give this 'shout-out' to a much-needed anthology of Lake Poets edited by Will Smith and Polly Atkin. Companions of Nature recalls to life some of the shamefully neglected Cumbrian poets and balladeers including Susanna Blamire, Robert Anderson, John Stagg and Sara Coleridge. William Wordsworth is included of course but also Dorothy Wordsworth and a healthy balance of female poets. Robert Southey's The Cataract of Lodore is finally republished alongside other 'lost' classics including Richardson's |It's Nobbut Me and Anderson's The Cummerlan Farmer.
There is occasional dialect but it's soft and something to chew over after the simplicity of the likes of Sara Coleridge's The Months. The poems and their sentiments remain relevant dealing with the beauty - or terror - of the Lake District landscape, love, death, romance and humour. What a delight to see such charming poems as Quillinan's The Birch of Silver How and Blamire's The Siller Croun (And She Shall Walk In Silk Attire).
This is a collection of over 40 poems offering a chance to discover or re-discover Cumbria's finest poets. It's a keepsake for tourists or essential bedside reading for locals. My only criticism is that it would have been nice to have had a short biography and background to the poets. But, hey, that's what Google was invented for!
- Companions of Nature: A Lake Poets Anthology edited by Will Smith and Polly Atkin. Published by Rothay Books. Available from Sam Reads Bookshop, Grasmere or Amazon, price £6.99.
