SOURCE: Kinsman, Robert S. Introduction to Poems, by John Skelton, edited by Robert S. Kinsman, pp. vii-xviii. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1969.

In the following essay, Kinsman offers a general overview of Skelton's work, noting the “direct diction” and “appropriate meter” in the shorter poems; the broad scope of the longer poems; the skillful adaptation of political themes in Magnificence; and the inventiveness and “vernacular vigour” of the Skeltonic verse form.

Despite its humdrum diction and seesaw metrics, Thomas Churchyard's appraisal of Skelton's poetry, prefixed to the Pithy, pleasaunt and profitable workes of his master (1568), has almost a modern ring. Resisting ‘slouth and tract of time’ in his own judgements, Churchyard praises Skelton for his ‘art’ (formal learning) and ripe reason. He commends his pungent satiric statement and his insight into the Tudor bureaucracy:

His terms to taunts did lean,           His talke was as he wraet, Full quick...