The Borough is a collection of poems by George Crabbe published in 1810. Written in heroic couplets, the poems are arranged as a series of 24 letters, covering various aspects of borough life and detailing the stories of certain inhabitants' lives.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b9/Abel_Keene_Borough_Letter_12.jpg/200px-Abel_Keene_Borough_Letter_12.jpg)
Of the letters, the best known is that of Peter Grimes in Letter XXII, which formed the basis for Benjamin Britten's opera of the same name. Letter XXI describes Abel Keene, a village schoolmaster and then a merchant's clerk who was led astray, lost his place and finally hanged himself.[1]
The poem was begun in 1804, three years before the publication of The Parish Register, and demonstrates a clear development in Crabbe's writing between the pastoral concerns shown in The Village, and the concentration on the life stories of individuals as seen in the Tales.
References
edit- ^ Brewer, E. Cobham (1978) [1894]. The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. reprint. Edwinstowe, England: Avenel Books. p. 3. ISBN 0-517-25921-4.
External links
edit- Text of "The Borough" at Project Gutenberg
- The Borough public domain audiobook at LibriVox