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15. Edmund Waller, Poems, &c. Written Upon Several Occasions, and to Several Persons (London, 1664).
Requested on: 5 November 1866.
This volume by the English royalist Edmund Waller (1606-87) contains a number of touching love poems, as well eulogies of literary figures, such as Ben Jonson, which sometimes veer into the mawkish and hyperbolic.
Waller’s collection has a strong tinge of English nationalism. ‘Upon a War with Spain, and a Fight at Sea’ rejoiced in the victories of the English ‘Eagles’ over the ‘heedless lambs’ of Spain during the 1650s. ‘To the King On His Navy’, dating from 1636, praised the Royal Navy for bringing peace, law and justice not merely to England, but to the whole world.
These patriotic sentiments chimed with Stoker’s heartfelt enthusiasm about the benign, civilizing role of the British Empire.
Citation:
15. Edmund Waller, Poems, &c. Written Upon Several Occasions, and to Several Persons (London, 1664).,
Marsh's Library Exhibits,
accessed May 19, 2024,
https://web.marshlibrary.ie/digi/items/show/504