A thread for #NationalPoetryMonth, showcasing items from the @britishlibrary collections.

Starting with Beowulf! The longest epic poem in Old English survives in a single manuscript, made sometime around AD 1000. We have a soft spot for Grendel's Mother!

https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/beowulf

One of the masterpieces of Middle English literature is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Once again, this poem survives in a single medieval copy, which features an extraordinary cycle of illumination.

https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight

Here is the first printed edition of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.

It was printed by William Caxton in 1476-77 in his workshop in the grounds of Westminster Abbey, and is generally accepted as the first substantial book printed in Britain.

https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/first-printed-edition-of-the-canterbury-tales

Marie de France is one of the first recorded female authors in Europe but her identity is a mystery. The epilogue to her Fables states, ‘Marie ai nun, si sui de France’ (Marie is my name and I am from France).

https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-lays-and-fables-of-marie-de-france

Finally for your delectation, here is William Scott’s The Modell of Poesye (1599), in a manuscript containing the author's notes and revisions.

This guide to composing and appreciating poetry is one of the earliest examples of English literary criticism.

https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-modell-of-poesye-1599