Preludes

by Alice Meynell

Preludes was Alice Meynell's first book of poems, published in 1875 under her maiden name, A. C. Thompson, with illustrations and ornaments by her sister Elizabeth Thompson, later known as the battle painter Lady Butler. Most of the poems were written in her late teens and early twenties: songs, sonnets and meditations on spring and autumn, separation, renunciation, the dead, and the poet's relation to nature and to her own art. Titles such as "A Letter from a Girl to Her Own Old Age" and "Builders of Ruins" already show the grave, compressed manner and the religious seriousness of her later verse and essays. The volume is dedicated to her father and mother. The full text is available to read online in your browser on Vinteuil, and the first poems are free.