Sir Patrick Spens (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- First Published: 1765
- Type of Work: Ballad
- Genres: Poetry, Ballad
- Subjects: Death or dying, Kings, queens, or royalty, Ships, Sea or seafaring life, Scotland or Scottish people, Middle Ages, Hunger
The Poem
“Sir Patrick Spens” is a well-known and popular ballad of unknown origin. The poem has many versions, with considerable variation in length and detail, as indicated in Francis James Child’s five-volume collection, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (1882-1898), which includes eighteen versions under the title “Sir Patrick Spence.” The most widely known version is a composite one with modernized spelling which appears in volume 1 of The Norton Anthology of English Literature, starting with the first edition in 1962. In the most common...
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