The Cambridge Introduction to Eighteenth-Century Poetry

An introduction for university students to important poets and forms of poetry between Dryden and Wordsworth.

John Sitter (Author)

9780521848244, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 October 2011

248 pages
23.5 x 16 x 1.8 cm, 0.54 kg

'… aimed at both students and teachers of the field. Through a series of thematic chapters Sitter explores many of the key aspects of eighteenth-century poetry in terms of form, style, voice, and content.' The Eighteenth Century

For readers daunted by the formal structures and rhetorical sophistication of eighteenth-century English poetry, this introduction by John Sitter brings the techniques and the major poets of the period 1700–1785 triumphantly to life. Sitter begins by offering a guide to poetic forms ranging from heroic couplets to blank verse, then demonstrates how skilfully male and female poets of the period used them as vehicles for imaginative experience, feelings and ideas. He then provides detailed analyses of individual works by poets from Finch, Swift and Pope, to Gray, Cowper and Barbauld. An approachable introduction to English poetry and major poets of the eighteenth century, this book provides a grounding in poetic analysis useful to students and general readers of literature.

Introduction
Part I. Voice: 1. Voice in eighteenth-century poetry
2. The Heroic couplet continuum
3. Vocal engagement: reading Pope's An Essay on Criticism
4. Talking in tetrameter
5. Blank verse and stanzaic poetry
Part II. Poetic Consciousness: 6. Satiric poetry
7. Pope as metapoet
8. Metapoetry beyond Pope
Part III. Vision: 9. Reading visions
10. Personification
11. Prophecy and prospects of society
12. Ecological prospects and natural knowledge
A concluding note: then and now
Suggested reading
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF], Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD], Poetry [DC]