Publisher Description

This volume provides lively and authoritative introductions to twenty-nine of the most important British and Irish poets from Geoffrey Chaucer to Philip Larkin. The list includes, among others, Shakespeare, Donne, Milton, Wordsworth, Browning, Yeats and T. S. Eliot, and represents the tradition of English poetry at its best. Each contributor offers a new assessment of a single poet's achievement and importance, with readings of the most important poems. The essays, written by leading experts, are personal responses, written in clear, vivid language, free of academic jargon, and aim to inform, arouse interest, and deepen understanding.

Notes

Lively introductions to 29 of the most important British and Irish poets, from Chaucer to Larkin.

Author Biography

Claude Rawson is Maynard Mack Professor of English at Yale University.

Table of Contents

Introduction Claude Rawson; 1. Geoffrey Chaucer J. A. Burrow; 2. Sir Thomas Wyatt Roland Greene; 3. Edmund Spenser Richard McCabe; 4. William Shakespeare David Bevington; 5. John Donne Achsah Guibbory; 6. Ben Jonson Colin Burrow; 7. George Herbert Helen Wilcox; 8. John Milton Martin Evans; 9. Andrew Marvell Nigel Smith; 10. John Dryden David Hopkins; 11. Jonathan Swift Claude Rawson; 12. Alexander Pope Paul Baines; 13. William Blake Morton D. Paley; 14. Robert Burns Karl Miller; 15. William Wordsworth Simon Jarvis; 16. Samuel Taylor Coleridge Seamus Perry; 17. George Gordon, Lord Byron Anne Barton; 18. Percy Bysshe Shelley James Chandler; 19. John Keats Susan Wolfson; 20. Alfred, Lord Tennyson Herbert Tucker; 21. Robert Browning J. Hillis Miller; 22. Emily Bronte Dinah Birch; 23. Christina Rossetti Linda Peterson; 24. Thomas Hardy Peter Robinson; 25. W. B. Yeats James Longenbach; 26. D. H. Lawrence Marjorie Perloff; 27. T. S. Eliot Michael North; 28. W. H. Auden Edward Mendelson; 29. Philip Larkin Alan Jenkins; Further reading; Index.

Review

'Rawson himself authors the article on Swift … in which he considers the different ways in Pope's and Swift's poetic reputations have suffered and been recovered.' The Eighteenth Century

Promotional

This volume provides essays by twenty-nine leading scholars and critics on the best English poets from Chaucer to Larkin.

Review Quote

'Rawson himself authors the article on Swift … in which he considers the different ways in Pope's and Swift's poetic reputations have suffered and been recovered.' The Eighteenth Century

Promotional "Headline"

This volume provides essays by twenty-nine leading scholars and critics on the best English poets from Chaucer to Larkin.

Description for Bookstore

This volume provides lively and authoritative introductions to twenty-nine of the most important British and Irish poets. Each essay offers a new assessment of a single poet's achievement and importance, with readings of the most important poems. The Companion is an ideal accompaniment to survey courses in English literature.

Description for Library

This volume provides lively and authoritative introductions to twenty-nine of the most important British and Irish poets. Each essay offers a new assessment of a single poet's achievement and importance, with readings of the most important poems. The Companion is an ideal accompaniment to survey courses in English literature.

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