Selected Poems of James Elroy Flecker

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Selected Poems of James Elroy Flecker

Selected Poems of James Elroy Flecker is a collection of poems with an introduction by Jean Cantlie Stewart.  She read Byron at a very early age, influenced by her elder brother.  Consequently, poetry became a lifelong passion for Jean.  One of her favourite authors was James Elroy Flecker, whose life was sadly cut short in 1915 when he died as a result of tuberculosis. His father had been ordained in the Church of England but Flecker explored the tenets of Islam which informed his later work.

Colour, Light and Music

As a result of Jean’s passion for the poetry of James Elroy Flecker she compiled this delightful anthology with a detailed introduction. As Jean writes in her introduction, his poetry is “alive with colour, light, sound and music…to Flecker, poetry was a combination of acute perception and intellectual and emotional activity and, in order to develop these creative gifts, the poet needed an enthusiasm for the world in every detail – a world that was always ‘passionately interesting’ and filled with human kindness.”

Flecker spoke eight modern and ancient languages and also had detailed knowledge of the Orient, in part due to his grandfather having been a schoolmaster in Constantinople and his having been posted there as Vice Consul.  Jean compiled the definitive anthology of Flecker’s poems which is published by Rowan Books.