4 h 34 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What words can hold love when the beloved is far away?
Love's Old Sweet Song gathers love poems chosen by George H. Ellwanger from later poets of the English-speaking tradition. Many voices meet around one subject, yet each brings a different mood. Longing, beauty, parting, and lasting affection give this treasury its range, inviting you to pause wherever a feeling strikes home.
Here, a speaker yearns for someone absent or for affection not yet returned. Elsewhere, a beloved's eyes, voice, and presence find echoes in flowers, stars, birdsong, and morning light. Loss and memory deepen the tenderness. These poems make room for love's pain as well as its warmth, without asking you to follow a single story.
What you’ll discover
- Many voices, one theme Meet different poetic voices whose shared subject opens into a rich variety of feelings.
- The pull of absence Explore the ache of wanting someone distant, or waiting for love to be returned.
- Beauty in familiar things Find flowers, stars, and morning light woven into praise of a beloved's presence.
- Love through loss Discover poems where parting and memory reveal the steadiness beneath tender feeling.
- Words worth sharing Enjoy graceful, musical verse that invites you to read aloud or linger alone.
Who will love it
This book will please readers who love short lyrics, garden and season imagery, and the sweet ache of remembered love. It suits anyone who enjoys reading poems aloud and discovering lesser-known poets beside famous ones.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- The Compiler's Aim and Taste
- Memory and the Ghosts of Old Love
- Seasons as the Mirror of the Heart
- Longing, Courtship and Delight
- Parting, Loss and Death
- Forms, Sounds and How to Read Aloud
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- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Altes süßes Lied der Liebe
by George H. Ellwanger (Herausgeber)
Short lyrics sing of kisses, partings, roses and ghosts, from Tennyson and Swinburne to poets few know.
Medium level2–5 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Love's Old Sweet Song is an anthology of love poems by modern British and American poets, gathered by George H. Ellwanger.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
The Compiler's Aim and Taste
Ellwanger begins with a foreword about what he has chosen and why. He says every anthology must reflect the personal taste of its maker, and he does not apologize for adding another. He wants to bring readers lyrics they might otherwise miss, because few people can own or read the many volumes in which they are scattered.
He draws his poems from modern writers, most of them still living when he gathered them. He leaves out verses that are too long, too often reprinted, or too light, such as the polished society verse of the drawing room. He also leaves out poems he finds too free in theme for this book.
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What is Love's Old Sweet Song about?
It is an anthology of short love poems by modern British and American poets, gathered by George H. Ellwanger. The poems cover longing, courtship, parting, memory and loss, and most are lyrics.
Who are the poets in Love's Old Sweet Song?
The poets include Tennyson, Swinburne, Browning, Christina and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Andrew Lang, Austin Dobson, William Morris, W. E. Henley and W. B. Yeats, along with many lesser-known writers of the time.
Are there translated poems in the collection?
Yes, a few. The compiler says translation is an art, so he includes only some, such as Félix Arvers' sonnet, de Nerval's An Old Tune, and Villon's ballade about last year's snows.
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