The new Oxford book of eighteenth century verse / chosen and edited by Roger Lonsdale.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Lonsdale, Roger.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English poetry--18th century.

English poetry.

Physical Description:

xlii, 870 pages ; 20 cm

Other Title:

Book of eighteenth century verse

Eighteenth century verse

Place of Publication:

Oxford [England] ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2003.

Summary:

This extraordinarily comprehensive volume includes not only a generous election of verse by such renowned poets as Swift, Pope, Johnson, Gray, Smart, Goldsmith, Cowper, Blake, and Burns, but also poems by lesser-known and previously ignored poets. Intermixing the familiar styles and preoccupations of "polite" taste with much less familiar verse from all social levels, it reveals the willingness of the century's poets to respond graphically, humorously, or unconventionally to all aspects of rural and urban Life. Topics range from golf and hypnotism to amorous adventure and marital discord, from growing sensitivity to natural beauty to fear of the effects of the Industrial Revolution, and from the anguish of poverty and unemployment to animated political exchanges in the wake of the French Revolution. Taken together, these poems reveal that both unpredictability and familiarity played as significant a role as Augustan reason played in the world of eighteenth-century poetry. The collection also includes a helpful Introduction, Notes, and a Glossary.

Notes:

"First issued (with corrections) as an Oxford University Press paperback 1987"--Verso t.p.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 839-857) and indexes.

ISBN:

019280491X

OCLC:

53287898