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John Skelton (1) (–1529)

Author of The Complete English Poems

For other authors named John Skelton, see the disambiguation page.

21+ Works 220 Members 8 Reviews

About the Author

As a royal tutor, parson, orator, poet-satirist, and courtier, Skelton has been called one of the most remarkable poets between Chaucer and Spenser, an imaginative, unpredictable precursor of the Renaissance. A Ballade of the Scottys she Kynge (1513) celebrates the victory of the English forces of show more Henry VIII under the Earl of Surrey over the army of James IV at the battle of Flodden. Magnificence (1516) is an allegory in which the generous prince Magnificence is first destroyed by his own ill-advised generosity, then restored by Goodhope, Perseverance, and related virtues. He was awarded the degree of laureate by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and was chosen as tutor to the young Prince Henry, who became Henry VIII. When Erasmus (see Vol. 4) visited England, he called Skelton "the one light and glory of British letters," mainly because of his translations of the classics and his Latin verses. Skelton directed his satire against the clergy, particularly Cardinal Wolsey, the target of Colin Clout (1522). After a lifelong hatred of Henry's chancellor, Skelton was finally forced to the sanctuary of Westminster in 1523 for writing Why Came Ye Not To Court (1522). While in confinement, he purified and simplified his style. He died before Wolsey met his downfall. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Works by John Skelton

Associated Works

The Oxford Book of English Verse (1999) — Contributor — 471 copies
The Penguin Book of Renaissance Verse: 1509-1659 (1992) — Contributor — 285 copies
Medieval English Lyrics: A Critical Anthology (1963) — Contributor — 195 copies
The Standard Book of British and American Verse (1932) — Contributor — 114 copies
Faber Book of Ballads (1965) — Contributor — 51 copies
Four Morality Plays (English Library) (1979) — Contributor — 45 copies
Prose and Poetry for Appreciation (1934) — Contributor, some editions — 44 copies
Masters of British Literature, Volume A (2007) — Contributor — 20 copies
The Renaissance in England (1966) — Contributor — 16 copies

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Reviews

Edited by Greg Walker this slim volume contains many of the important longer poems by Skelton, but there are cuts to some of them. There is a good short introduction and a chronology of Skeltons life and times. There are a few notes at the back which translate some of the more difficult words. Skelton's spelling has been modernised.

I liked this selection which includes a few of the shorter poems and also an extract from Come ye not to Court. This is at a bargain price in the Everyman series and is a good introduction to the poet

John Skelton was an English poet (1460-1529) and was active in the Tudor courts of kings Henry VII and Henry VIII. In fact we first hear of him as a tutor to the young Prince Henry before he was heir to the English throne. He was a forceful personality and made a lasting impression on his generation and subsequently has taken his place in the canon of English poetry. There has been much debate as to whether that place is deserved, with some critics saying it is more his place in history that has warranted his fame rather than the poetry that he wrote. There is no doubt that since the time of Chaucer in the late 14th century and up to the time of the Elizabethan poets and Spenser in the late 16th century Skelton holds a unique place because of the amount of his poetry that has survived.

So what about the poetry. Well first impression are that it is different, wildly uneven, vitriolic and although the later poems have a unique style of their own they did not provide any sort of blueprint that would inspire subsequent poets. In many ways the poems appear as anachronisms rather like Skelton himself. The poems certainly hark back to medieval times with the first of the longer poems "The Bowge of Court" (the mouth of the Tudor Court) being a dream allegory of a nobleman beset by the deadly sins that Skelton perceived that were rife in the court. It is written in iambic pentameters with an ababccdd rhyming scheme. The satire is evident throughout although it is of a more general nature and does concern itself with man's salvation. It does not make for easy reading today and there are many biblical and liturgical references that require detailed notes to gain a more in depth understanding of what is going on here.

The next significant poem is "Phyllyp Sparowe" and suddenly the poet is writing in a wholly new and different style and one that has come to be known as Skeltonics. His lines are contracted into six, five or even four syllables, they are light and airy with rhymes that go on and on and seem sometimes to be taken to their limit. These new short lines have a pungency all of their own and give Skelton added scope for word play, they seem to be flung out onto the page, but to me they also have the feel of rhyming songs, they almost chime out to be sung in a way that Bob Dylan might sing "Its alright ma I'm only bleeding"
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½
 
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baswood | 1 other review | Dec 21, 2013 |
A selection and introduction by Anthony Thwaite of Skeltons poems. This contains an eleven page essay on Skelton and his poetics and is lively and entertaining. It contains some of the famous longer poems "Philip Sparrow" "Speak Parrot" and the Tunning of Elinour Rumming" . There are lengthy excerpts from "Colin Clout" and The Bouge of Court" There are none of the shorter poems, but there are short excerpts from "A Replication" and "The Garland of Laurel"

Skelton's spellings have been modernised and where Latin phrases or lines have been included then there are translations to the more obscure of these. There are no notes or glossary. There is enough here to get an idea and feel for the poetry but it is by no means the whole story. A nice thin volume that is relatively easy to read.

John Skelton was an English poet (1460-1529) and was active in the Tudor courts of kings Henry VII and Henry VIII. In fact we first hear of him as a tutor to the young Prince Henry before he was heir to the English throne. He was a forceful personality and made a lasting impression on his generation and subsequently has taken his place in the canon of English poetry. There has been much debate as to whether that place is deserved, with some critics saying it is more his place in history that has warranted his fame rather than the poetry that he wrote. There is no doubt that since the time of Chaucer in the late 14th century and up to the time of the Elizabethan poets and Spenser in the late 16th century Skelton holds a unique place because of the amount of his poetry that has survived.

So what about the poetry. Well first impression are that it is different, wildly uneven, vitriolic and although the later poems have a unique style of their own they did not provide any sort of blueprint that would inspire subsequent poets. In many ways the poems appear as anachronisms rather like Skelton himself. The poems certainly hark back to medieval times with the first of the longer poems "The Bowge of Court" (the mouth of the Tudor Court) being a dream allegory of a nobleman beset by the deadly sins that Skelton perceived that were rife in the court. It is written in iambic pentameters with an ababccdd rhyming scheme. The satire is evident throughout although it is of a more general nature and does concern itself with man's salvation. It does not make for easy reading today and there are many biblical and liturgical references that require detailed notes to gain a more in depth understanding of what is going on here.

The next significant poem is "Phyllyp Sparowe" and suddenly the poet is writing in a wholly new and different style and one that has come to be known as Skeltonics. His lines are contracted into six, five or even four syllables, they are light and airy with rhymes that go on and on and seem sometimes to be taken to their limit. These new short lines have a pungency all of their own and give Skelton added scope for word play, they seem to be flung out onto the page, but to me they also have the feel of rhyming songs, they almost chime out to be sung in a way that Bob Dylan might sing "Its alright ma I'm only bleeding"
… (more)
½
 
Flagged
baswood | Dec 21, 2013 |
John Skelton was an English poet (1460-1529) and was active in the Tudor courts of kings Henry VII and Henry VIII. In fact we first hear of him as a tutor to the young Prince Henry before he was heir to the English throne. He was a forceful personality and made a lasting impression on his generation and subsequently has taken his place in the canon of English poetry. There has been much debate as to whether that place is deserved, with some critics saying it is more his place in history that has warranted his fame rather than the poetry that he wrote. There is no doubt that since the time of Chaucer in the late 14th century and up to the time of the Elizabethan poets and Spenser in the late 16th century Skelton holds a unique place because of the amount of his poetry that has survived.

So what about the poetry. Well first impression are that it is different, wildly uneven, vitriolic and although the later poems have a unique style of their own they did not provide any sort of blueprint that would inspire subsequent poets. In many ways the poems appear as anachronisms rather like Skelton himself. The poems certainly hark back to medieval times with the first of the longer poems "The Bowge of Court" (the mouth of the Tudor Court) being a dream allegory of a nobleman beset by the deadly sins that Skelton perceived that were rife in the court. It is written in iambic pentameters with an ababccdd rhyming scheme. The satire is evident throughout although it is of a more general nature and does concern itself with man's salvation. It does not make for easy reading today and there are many biblical and liturgical references that require detailed notes to gain a more in depth understanding of what is going on here.

The next significant poem is "Phyllyp Sparowe" and suddenly the poet is writing in a wholly new and different style and one that has come to be known as Skeltonics. His lines are contracted into six, five or even four syllables, they are light and airy with rhymes that go on and on and seem sometimes to be taken to their limit. These new short lines have a pungency all of their own and give Skelton added scope for word play, they seem to be flung out onto the page, but to me they also have the feel of rhyming songs, they almost chime out to be sung in a way that Bob Dylan might sing "Its alright ma I'm only bleeding" This is an example from Skelton's Colin Clout:

But now my mynde ye understande,
For they must take in hande
To preche, and withstande
All manner of abjections;
For bysshoppes havr protections
They say, to do corrections
But they have no affections
To take sadde dyrections
In such maner of cases
Men say, they bere no faces
To occupye suche places
To sowe the sede of graces.


Back to Phyllipe Sparowe which is an early example of Skeltonics and tells from the mouth of a certain Jane Scroupe her lamentations for the loss of her pet sparrow that was killed by her cat Gib. Many of her thoughts are concerned with the afterlife of the sparrow which she sees flying in heaven. The poem also contains an imagined requiem mass for Phyllipe Sparrow in which a whole host of birds take part, all of them named and some described; it is like something that could have come from Chaucer's "Parliament of Fowles". However, it would not be a Skelton poem without something else that sets it out of the normal run of things. Suddenly the goodly maid Jane from the nunnery near Norwich takes on an added persona, she becomes almost a sexual object in lines like:

It had a velvet cap
And wold syt upon my lap,
And seke after small wormes,
And sometime white bread crommes;
And many times and ofte
Between my breasts softe
It wolde lye and rest
It was proper and prest
...........
And when I sayd 'Phyp Phyp'
Than he would lepe and skyp
And take me by the lyp
Alas, it wyll me slo,
That Phillyp is gone me fro!


It has been suggested that Skelton was thinking of the Virgin Mary with these lines, but we will never know and it is left to our own interpretation.

Skelton was a master of the political satire and three of his longer poems focused on his arch enemy, Cardinal Wolsey. Speke Parrott is perhaps Skeltons most difficult poem. it reads like an early 'Wasteland' with its sounds its frequent references in other languages and its obscure references. However amongst some invectives against the state that England has fallen into there are frequent references to Cardinal Wolsey. If this satire did not hit its mark then Skelton followed up with Collyn Clout. Here a hard working man from peasant stock rails against the state of the nation and the state of the catholic church and it is Skelton taking us back to the world Langland's "Piers Plowman" He is at pains to make his language plane, but also comments with a large tongue in his cheek on his own style of poetry:

For though my ryme be ragged,
Tattered and jagged,
Rudely rayne-beaten,
Rusty and mothe-eaten,
yf ye take well therwith
It hath in it some pyth


Skelton made Wolsey the subject of a further satire in "Ye come ye nat to Courte" not included in this collection. In this poem Skelton gets more personal still, saying that the country was being run from Wolsey's grand home at Hampton Court rather from the Kings court at Westminster. Wolsey was all powerful at this time and so Skelton was taking something of a risk, and he may or may not have been locked up in the tower of London for his pains. Shortly after the publication of this poem Skelton found his way back into favour with Wolsey as the two clerics found themselves on the same side when it came to fighting against heretics to the Catholic Faith. Skelton was a conservative and some have argued a priest first and foremost.

Perhaps Skelton's most famous poem is "The Tunnying of Elynour Rummyng" This finds Skelton at his most bawdy and it is a wonderfully irreverent piece of social satire as he describes Elynours ale-house and the customers that frequent it. It is Rabelaisian in the extreme and it goes some way to account for Skelton's reputation as a bawdy sort of court jester. The publication a few decades after his death called The "Merie Tales of Skelton" also did not help his reputation. It is a series of sometimes bawdy and always cheeky stories of his exploits when he was a prelate at Diss, none of which have any evidence from other sources, but all point to the larger than life character of John Skelton, self proclaimed poet Laureate.

Skelton was a political, and satirical poet, he was a lampoonist, he wrote religious poetry, meditations, prayers and panegyrics. Not all are included in these selections, but some of the longer poems contain all these elements. Anyone wishing to delve a little deeper into John Skeltons poems would be well advised to pick up this little book. It contains most of the important longer poems (although there are a few cuts made in some), the notes are excellent and essential for a further understanding and it also has and excellent glossary of words. When Skelton gets into his stride with his Skeltonic lines they cry out to be read aloud and I thoroughly enjoyed myself doing so. His language is easier than Chaucers, but his use of Latin and other languages sometimes makes for problems, but he is a word smith and an early English one at that and there are plenty of passages that I found a delight to read. I would rate this book at 4.5 stars, losing half a star for some of the cuts to the longer poems.
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½
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baswood | 2 other reviews | Dec 21, 2013 |
Poems by the Tudor poet who was the future Henry VIII's tutor before Prince Arthur died and Henry became heir to the throne. It was a mistake getting the Kindle edition as all the layout has been destroyed in the conversion process, which makes reading poetry very difficult
 
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Robertgreaves | 1 other review | Feb 11, 2013 |

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