We begin another week here on My Poetic Side with a look at the Tolkien poems that are to be published, a Dante Statue in Midhurst and the rare poetry book obtained by a university.

J R R Tolkien Poem To Be Published

The publishers HarperCollins have announced that in September 2024, they will be publishing “The Collected Poems of J R R Tolkien”. The poems, which have been edited by Wayne G Hammond and Christina Scull have never been published before, and will appear in just one volume.

The publishers hold world all-language rights to all of the author’s works. In their statement, they said,

“The Voyage of Éarendel the Evening Star”, which Tolkien began work on in 1914, is the first appearance of the “Silmarillion”, and there are poems throughout both “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings”. The collection will feature an analysis of each poem from Scull and Hammond, who are both Tolkien scholars.

Scull and Hammond were hired by Tolkien’s son, Christopher Tolkien, who was the executor of his father’s literary estate until his own death in 2020. Their initial brief was to only review the early poems of the author. However, as they began examining what turned out to be an opus of poetry spanning six decades, they felt that it was essential to review all of his poetry. A trial part of the book was sent to Christopher Tolkien shortly before his death, and he agreed with the two scholars.

The collection contains almost 200 poems and shows Tolkien at his most creative.

Dante Statue Approved for Midhurst

Plans have been approved to install a statue of Dante Alighieri, the 13th-century Italian poet, in Midhurst.

The application was made by the Midhurst Society, which requested permission to install a bronze statue that stood 7 feet high near the ornamental footbridge in Midhurst. The statue was created by Philip Jackson, who is a sculptor and resident of Midhurst and wants to gift the statue to the town. He is the sculptor behind the 20ft statue of footballer Bobby Moore, which greats visitors to Wembley Stadium

Midhurst itself has no links with the poet, but the nearby town of Chichester is twinned with Ravenna, where the poet’s tomb is located. The statue shows the poet holding an open copy of “The Divine Comedy”, the book which is widely considered to be one of the most significant poems to have come from the Middle Ages. There are three figures depicted perched on the pages of the book, the poet himself, and Beatrice and Virgil, his companions in Purgatory with whom he was seeking Paradise.

University of Macau Library Obtains Rare Book

An annotated, rare edition of

has been obtained by the library of the University of Macau. This year is the 500^th anniversary of the birth of Luís de Camões, the Portuguese poet.

The book, which was published in 1613, contains what the library believes to be the poet’s first biography written by Pedro de Mariz, one of his contemporaries.