The Owl and the Nightingale

Shortlisted for the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry

In this -graceful, elegant translation- (Guardian), Poet Laureate Simon Armitage communicates the energy and humour of the Middle English tale with all the cut and thrust of the original. An unnamed narrator overhears a fiery verbal contest between the two eponymous birds, which moves entertainingly from the eloquent and philosophical to the ribald and ridiculous.

-Arguably the greatest early Middle English poem we have.'' Prospect