Romantic Poetry: An Annotated Anthology
"This poetry anthology is impressive because of its carefully lucid headnotes and footnotes, its thematic contents lists and its textual reliability, all of which are a very high order." (BARS Bulletin & Review, July 2008)"The editors have a particular commitment to the role that an appreciation of poetic form can play in critical understanding, and it is on account of this formal detail that the anthology is so valuable. Introductory headnotes elucidate the subtleties of each poem's craft, while footnotes comment on line endings, rhyme patterns, and other features of the text. Some comments are so brilliantly incisive as to deserve separate publication, such as the account of the metre ofChristabel: 'each line seems like a stealthy event' (p. 207). Without question, this is by far the best way that any reader could be introduced to these poets, and the anthology is careful not to suggest that an attention to poetic detail precludes other types of investigation. Understanding how a poem creates meaning, however, is the vital first step, and for this reasonRomantic Poetry: An Annotated Anthologywill doubtless be the standard teaching anthology for many years."Year's Work of English Studies (2010)