Product Information
Anthologies of eighteenth-century verse have tended to confirm traditional notions of the period as one of untroubled elegance, urbanity, and decorum. Offering over 550 poems and extracts by more than 250 poets, The New Oxford Book of Eighteenth-Century Verse presents a truer picture of this age as a much less stable and decorous time. This extraordinarily comprehensive volume includes not only a generous selection of verse by such renowned poets as Swift, Pope, Johnson, Gray, Smart, Goldsmith, Cowper, Blake, and Burns, but also a large number of poems by lesser-known and previously ignored poets. Intermixing the familiar styles and preoccupations of "polite" taste with much less familiar verse from all social levels, it reveals the willingness of the century's poets to respond graphically, humorously, or unconventionally to all aspects of rural and urban life. Topics range from golf and hypnotism to amorous adventure and marital discord, from growing sensitivity to natural beauty to fear of the effects of the Industrial Revolution, and from the anguish of poverty and unemployment to animated political exchanges in the wake of the French Revolution. Taken together, these poems reveal that both unpredictability and familiarity played as significant a role as Augustan reason played in the world of eighteenth-century poetry. The anthology also includes a helpful introduction, notes, and a glossary.Product Identifiers
PublisherOxford University Press, Incorporated
ISBN-100192141228
ISBN-139780192141224
eBay Product ID (ePID)91095045
Product Key Features
Book TitleNew Oxford Book of Eighteenth-Century Verse
Number of Pages912 Pages
LanguageEnglish
Publication Year1985
TopicAnthologies (Multiple Authors)
GenrePoetry
AuthorRoger Lonsdale
Book SeriesOxford Books of Verse Ser.
Dimensions
Item Height1.5 in
Item Weight32.2 oz.
Item Length8.8 in
Item Width5.8 in
Additional Product Features