![\"favourite](\"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/files\/2015\/12\/favourite-literary-feast.png\")
<\/a>What\u2019s your favourite literary feast? Photograph: alamy<\/p><\/div>\n
“[\u2026] he forth from the closet brought a heap “Our grapes fresh from the vine, “The most prominent object was a long table with a table-cloth spread on it, as if a feast had been in preparation when the house and the clocks all stopped together. An \u00e9pergne or centre-piece of some kind was in the middle of this cloth; it was so heavily overhung with cobwebs that its form was quite undistinguishable; and, as I looked along the yellow expanse out of which I remember its seeming to grow, like a black fungus, I saw speckled-legged spiders with blotchy bodies running home to it, and running out from it “Hallo! A great deal of steam! The pudding was out of the copper. A smell like a washing-day! That was the cloth. A smell like an eating-house and a pastrycook\u2019s next door to each other, with a laundress\u2019s next door to that! That was the pudding! In half a minute Mrs Cratchit entered \u2014 flushed by smiling proudly \u2014 with the pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-quartern of ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top. “Good bread and good drink, a good fire in the hall, “\u2018\u2018It is dull, Son of Adam, to drink without eating,\u2019\u2019 said the Queen presently. \u2018\u2018What would you like best to eat?\u2019\u2019 “Harry\u2019s mouth fell open. The dishes in front of him were now piled with food. He had never seen so many things he liked to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and, for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs. “\u201cHold hard a minute, then!\u201d said the Rat. He looped the painter through a ring in his landing-stage, climbed up into his hole above, and after a short interval reappeared staggering under a fat, wicker luncheon-basket. Source: http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/childrens-books-site\/2015\/dec\/19\/the-best-feasts-quotes-in-literature<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From Keats to Harry Potter to Christina … Continue reading
\nOf candied apple, quince, and plum, and gourd;
\nWith jellies soother than the creamy curd,
\nAnd lucent syrops, tinct with cinnamon;
\nManna and dates, in argosy transferr\u2019d
\nFrom Fez; and spiced dainties, every one,
\nFrom silken Samarcand to cedar\u2019d Lebanon.
\nJohn Keats, The Eve of St Agnes<\/span><\/a>, published 1820<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nPomegranates full and fine,
\nDates and sharp bullaces,
\nRare pears and greengages,
\nDamsons and bilberries,
\nTaste them and try:
\nCurrants and gooseberries,
\nBright-fire-like barberries,
\nFigs to fill your mouth,
\nCitrons from the South,
\nSweet to tongue and sound to eye,
\nCome buy, come buy.
\nChristina Rossetti, Goblin Market<\/span><\/a>, published 1862<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nCharles Dickens, <\/strong>Great Expectations<\/span><\/a><\/strong>, published 1861<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nCharles Dickens, <\/strong>A Christmas Carol<\/span><\/a><\/strong>, published 1843<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nBrawn, pudding, and souse, and good mustard withal.
\nBeef, mutton, and pork, and good pies of the best,
\nPig, veal, goose, and capon, and turkey well drest,
\nCheese, apples and nuts, and good carols to hear,
\nAs then in the country is counted good cheer.
\nThomas Tusser, \u2018Christmas Cheer\u2019, 1557, from Tusser\u2019s book, <\/strong>A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie<\/span><\/a><\/strong>, a long, rhyming treatise about caring for home and farm in rural England.<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\u201cTurkish Delight, please, your Majesty,\u201d said Edmund.
\nThe Queen let another drop fall from her bottle on to the snow, and instantly there appeared a round box, tied with green silk ribbon, which, when opened, turned out to contain several pounds of the best Turkish Delight. Each piece was sweet and light to the very centre and Edmund had never tasted anything more delicious. He was quite warm now, and very comfortable.\u201d
\nCS Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe<\/span><\/a>, published in 1950<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nJK Rowling, <\/strong>Harry Potter and the Philosopher\u2019s Stone<\/span><\/a><\/strong>, published 1997<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\u201cShove that under your feet,\u201d he observed to the Mole, as he passed it down into the boat. Then he untied the painter and took the sculls again.
\n\u201cWhat\u2019s inside it?\u201d asked the Mole, wriggling with curiosity.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s cold chicken inside it,\u201d replied the Rat briefly;
\n\u201ccoldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrolls-
\ncresssandwichespottedmeatgingerbeerlemonadesodawater\u2014\u201d
\n\u201cO stop, stop,\u201d cried the Mole in ecstacies: \u201cThis is too much!\u201d
\nKenneth Grahame, <\/strong>The Wind in the Willows<\/span><\/a><\/strong>, published in 1908<\/strong><\/p>\nCheck out the Young Poet Network\u2019s Festive Feasts<\/span><\/a> challenge which asks young poets to be inspired by John Keats\u2019 The Eve of St Agnes to create poems about their own fantastical banquets. You can also follow Young Poets Network on Twitter <\/strong>@youngpoetsnet<\/span><\/a>.<\/h5>\n