Summary
Summary of Love's Old Sweet Song
Key ideas
Key idea 1
Love finds new voices
Love's Old Sweet Song brings together love poems by modern British and American poets, gathered by George H. Ellwanger. Familiar voices such as Tennyson, Rossetti and Yeats stand beside writers whose songs readers may not know. The mood is mostly lyrical, with sadness often leading.
Ellwanger sets these newer singers beside the Elizabethan masters without claiming that they have surpassed them. His guiding thought is that love itself stays much the same, while each poet discovers a different way to sing about it.
Key idea 2
Personal taste shapes the gathering
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Key idea 3
Memory brings lost love close
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Key idea 4
Seasons give feeling a shape
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Key idea 5
Desire also brings delight
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Key idea 6
Parting leaves tenderness and grief
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Key idea 7
Repeated sounds carry the feeling
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Key idea 8
Many voices share familiar feelings
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
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 this book is
Love's Old Sweet Song is an anthology of love poems by modern British and American poets, gathered by George H. Ellwanger. It opens with a short envoy and a foreword in which the compiler explains his choices. He picks lyrics from living writers and recent ones, favours songs that readers may not know, and keeps the sonnet to a small share. Only a few poems are translations from the French and the Italian.
In the foreword he sets the new singers beside the Elizabethan masters, and he argues that love itself has not changed, only the way poets sing of it. The tone is mostly lyrical, with the minor keys leading. You will meet well-known names such as Tennyson, Swinburne, Rossetti, Browning and Yeats beside poets few readers have heard of. Let us begin with the poems of memory and absence.
In this summary
- 1The Compiler's Aim and TasteFree
- 2Memory and the Ghosts of Old Love
- 3Seasons as the Mirror of the Heart
- 4Longing, Courtship and Delight
- 5Parting, Loss and Death
- 6Forms, Sounds and How to Read Aloud
Key point 1 of 6
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.
He compares the new singers with Waller, Herrick, Jonson, Marvell and Carew. He does not claim that the moderns sing better. He says the old songs have the approval of centuries, while the new songs still wait for time to judge them.
His main claim is gentle. Poets pass away, he says, but love is always new, and so there will always be fresh chords to sound. That idea runs quietly under every poem that follows.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Check yourself
What does Ellwanger believe about love and the poets who sing of it?
Right. “In the foreword he sets the new singers beside the Elizabethan masters, and he argues that love itself has not changed, only the way poets sing of it.”Not quite. “In the foreword he sets the new singers beside the Elizabethan masters, and he argues that love itself has not changed, only the way poets sing of it.”
How do the poems of old love often present memory?
Right. “These poems treat memory as a place you can visit.”Not quite. “These poems treat memory as a place you can visit.”
What role do refrains play in the collection?
Right. “Most poems are short, and many use refrains.”Not quite. “Most poems are short, and many use refrains.”
Questions about Love's Old Sweet Song
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.
Is Love's Old Sweet Song easy to read?
Most poems are short and built on clear images such as roses, birds and gardens, so you can read one at a time. Refrains and strong rhythms make many of them pleasant to read aloud.
What is the main message of the collection?
The compiler holds that love stays the same in essence from age to age, while each generation finds new songs for it. The poems show joy, doubt, parting and memory as parts of one feeling.
