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" ( )

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 ( )