Cambridge Companion Eighteenth-Century Poetry

Cambridge Introductions to Literature

by John E. Sitter

This volume analyzes major premises, preoccupations, and practices of a wide range of English poets writing from 1700 to the 1790s, including Pope and Thomson, Anna Seward and Erasmus Darwin. Specially commissioned essays by leading scholars avoid familiar categories and single-author approaches to consider such large poetic themes as nature, the city, political passions, the relation of death to desire and dreams, the rise of a national tradition, appeals to an imagined future, and the meanings of "sensibility." The essays are supported by a chronology and guides to further reading.

Genres: Poetry

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cambridge Companion to 18th Century Poetry - A Collection of Essays

This is the book to read if you’re studying 18th Century Poetry. Especially if you’re studying women poets specifically. Claudia Thomas Kairoff has such a useful and fascinating essay called ‘Eighteenth-Century women poets and readers’ that helps establish the world of women poets at this time. This was one of my favorite essays in this book, as well as ‘The Poetry of Sensibility’ by Patricia Meyer Spacks, which I might use to inspire my thesis for my essay in this module.

One of my favourite concepts that is explored here is this idea of sensibility and how women poets at this time interacted with it. In some, there was quiet resistance to their role in society, and in some there wasn’t. Also, learning about the history of some of these poets and the lives they lived really enriches the poetry itself. Additionally, these essays provide a good combination of historical and literary criticism that will definitely help when studying. I think this is definitely an essential for 18th century poetry, and if you are studying literature or are just interested in this era then this is a useful book to pick up.

[Sian Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read Tim Fulford's essay on Nature Poetry talking on Thomson, Cowper, Pope, etc. and their relationship with nation, selfhood, politics, and nature. A very comprehensive discussion of these themes and it wasn't awful to read this morning before uni:)