As he himself said, Drayton’s sonnets are the most “sportive” of the great Elizabethan love poems, “ever in motion,” by turns “wild, madding, jocund, and irregular,” yet maintaining a universality and sturdy good sense that have spoken to the hearts of hearers and readers for four centuries. This recording includes in full not only his famous final collection, Idea (1619), but also the earlier Idea’s Mirror (1594), as well as the various love sonnets that he wrote on other occasions.
Michael Drayton (1563–1631), probably the bestselling English poet of his era, wrote prolifically in many different genres. He is remembered particularly for his love sonnets (“Since there’s no help, come, let us kiss and part…”) and historical poems (“Fair stood the wind for France…”). “One of the most lovable of our elder poets” (in A. H. Bullen’s much-quoted description), he was buried in Westminster Abbey.View all by Michael Drayton
