Reading eighteenth-century poetry
By: Patricia Meyer Spacks.
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Malden, MA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 289
ISBN-13: 9781405153614; 9781405153621
Subjects: English poetry -- 18th century -- History and criticism; English poetry -- Appreciation
Other titles: Reading 18th-century poetry
Description: "Written by world-renowned critic, Patricia Meyer Spacks, Reading Eighteenth - Century Poetry recaptures for modern readers the urgency, distinctiveness and rewarding nature of the poetry written in this period. Broadly chronological in structure, and incorporating close reading alongside astute contextual and historical detail, it exposes the multiplicity of forms, tones, and topics engaged by eighteenth-century poets. The book includes close analysis of poems by such well-known writers such as Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift, as well as work by less familiar poets, including Stephen Duck and Mary Leapor. For those returning to eighteenth-century poetry, or delving into it for the first time, this is an essential guide to reading these challenging and powerful works of literature."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: How to live: the moral and the social; title: Matters of feeling: poetry of emotion; title: The power of detail: description in verse; title: High language and low: the diction of poetry; title: Alexander Pope and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu; title: How to live: the place of work; title: Matters of feeling: forms of the personal; title: Structures of energy, structures of leisure: ode and blank verse; title: Old poetry, old language: imitation and fraud; title: Outliers: Mary Leapor and Christopher Smart; title: How to live: poetry and politics; title: Matters of feeling: emotion celebrated; title: Narrative and reflection; title: Poetic languages: diction old and new; title: Mary Robinson and William Cowper.