A Companion to Eighteenth-Century Poetry

✍ Scribed by Christine Gerrard

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 623
• Series: Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This broad-ranging Companion gives readers a thorough grounding in both the background and the substance of eighteenth-century poetry in all its rich variety.

An up-to-date and wide-ranging guide to eighteenth-century poetry.

Reflects the dramatic transformation which has taken place in the study of eighteenth-century poetry over the past two decades.

Opens with a section on contexts, discussing poetry’s relationships with patriotism, politics, science, and the visual arts, for example.

Discusses poetry by male and female poets from all walks of life.

Includes numerous close readings of individual poems, ranging from Pope’s The Rape of the Lock to Mary Collier’s The Woman’s Labour .

Includes more provocative contributions on subjects such as rural poetry and the self-taught tradition, British poetry 'beyond the borders', the constructions of femininity, women as writers and women as readers.

Designed to be used alongside David Fairer and Christine Gerrard’s Eighteenth-century Poetry: An Annotated Anthology (Blackwell Publishing, Second Edition, 2003).

✦ Table of Contents

A COMPANION TO EIGHTEENTH CENTURY POETRY......Page 5
Contents......Page 7
Notes on Contributors......Page 11
Acknowledgments......Page 17
Introduction......Page 19
PART I Contexts and Perspectives......Page 23
1 Poetry, Politics, and the Rise of Party......Page 25
2 Poetry, Politics, and Empire......Page 41
3 Poetry and Science......Page 56
4 Poetry and Religion......Page 71
5 Poetic Enthusiasm......Page 87
6 Poetry and the Visual Arts......Page 101
7 Poetry, Popular Culture, and the Literary Marketplace......Page 115
8 Women Poets and Their Writing in Eighteenth-Century Britain......Page 129
9 Poetry, Sentiment, and Sensibility......Page 145
PART II Readings......Page 161
10 John Gay, The Shepherd’s Week......Page 163
11 Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock and “Eloisa to Abelard”......Page 175
12 Jonathan Swift, the “Stella” Poems......Page 188
13 Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Six Town Eclogues and Other Poems......Page 202
14 James Thomson, The Seasons......Page 215
15 Stephen Duck, The Thresher’s Labour, and Mary Collier, The Woman’s Labour......Page 227
16 Mary Leapor, “Crumble-Hall”......Page 241
17 Mark Akenside, The Pleasures of Imagination......Page 255
18 Samuel Johnson, London and The Vanity of Human Wishes......Page 270
19 William Collins, “Ode on the Poetical Character”......Page 283
20 Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard......Page 295
21 Christopher Smart, Jubilate Agno......Page 308
22 Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village, and George Crabbe, The Village......Page 321
23 William Cowper, The Task......Page 334
24 Robert Burns, “Tam o’ Shanter”......Page 347
PART III Forms and Genres......Page 357
25 Rhyming Couplets and Blank Verse......Page 359
26 Epic and Mock-Heroic......Page 374
27 Verse Satire......Page 387
28 The Ode......Page 404
29 The Georgic......Page 421
30 The Verse Epistle......Page 435
PART IV Themes and Debates......Page 447
31 The Constructions of Femininity......Page 449
32 Whig and Tory Poetics......Page 462
33 The Classical Inheritance......Page 476
34 Augustanism and Pre-Romanticism......Page 491
35 Recovering the Past: Shakespeare, Spenser, and British Poetic Tradition......Page 504
36 The Pleasures and Perils of the Imagination......Page 518
37 The Sublime......Page 533
38 Poetry and the City......Page 552
39 Cartography and the Poetry of Place......Page 567
40 Rural Poetry and the Self-Taught Tradition......Page 581
41 Poetry Beyond the English Borders......Page 595
Index......Page 608