Reading Eighteenth–Century Poetry

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.

Preamble.

1 How to Live: The Moral and the Social.

2 Matters of Feeling: Poetry of Emotion.

3 The Power of Detail: Description in Verse.

4 High Language and Low: The Diction of Poetry.

5 Alexander Pope and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.

6 How to Live: The Place of Work.

7 Matters of Feeling: Forms of the Personal.

8 Structures of Energy, Structures of Leisure: Ode and Blank Verse.

9 Old Poetry, Old Language: Imitation and Fraud.

10 Outliers: Mary Leapor and Christopher Smart.

11 How to Live: Poetry and Politics.

12 Matters of Feeling: Emotion Celebrated.

13 Narrative and Reflection.

14 Poetic Languages: Diction Old and New.

15 Mary Robinson and William Cowper.

Bibliography.

Index.

PATRICIA MEYER SPACKS is Edgar F. Shannon Professor of Eighteenth–Century Literature at the University of Virginia. She is the author of numerous books, and amongst other honors, was Vice President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences from 2001–2004.

"The readings that Spacks provides are nuanced and stimulating. Each of the chapters is organized around the detailed close reading of three to four poems which are related to each other in order to exemplify the range of possible responses to phenomena such as emotion, reflection or description. Spacks′s guidance introduces the student reader to the generic and thematic fluidity of eighteenth–century poetry but also offers stimulating readings to the experienced scholar." ( English Studies, August 2010)

"Reading Eighteenth–Century Poetry, a book designated for the specialist and general reader alike." (Studies in English Literature, Summer 2010)

"Spacks is an impressive close reader, and her lively, persuasive analyses offer exemplary models to students coming to this method or subject for the first time." (CHOICE, August 2009)