The New Oxford Book of Eighteenth-Century Verse (Oxford Books of Verse) - Hardcover

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9780192141224: The New Oxford Book of Eighteenth-Century Verse (Oxford Books of Verse)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0192141228 ISBN 13: 9780192141224

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1985

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.

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About the Author:

About the Editor:
Roger Lonsdale is Fellow and Tutor in English at Balliol College, Oxford University. He is also the author of Dr. Charles Burney and The Poems of Gray, Collins and Goldsmith.

Review:

`a major event...Forces a reappraisal of what 18th-century poetry is.' John Carey, Sunday Times

`a major anthology: one of the best that Oxford has ever produced.' James Fenton, The Times

`the most important anthology in recent years' Economist

`indispensable.' Kingsley Amis

'a bold, subtle, endlessly fascinating anthology which challenges the received view of 18th-century verse ... The result is a living text that bustles with many and varied voices, rather than a still-museum of well-known urns. Anyone who cares about poetry should read it.' Tom Paulin, Daily Telegraph

'brilliant' Notes and Queries

`fascinating ... The breadth, the scope of this anthology would be difficult to surpass.' Daniel Albright, The Scriblerian.

'Here is a whole bustling world of street ballads, hymns, rhymes, polemics, squibs and jokes, as well as the classics Lonsdale's introduction authoritatively shows how the 18th century structured itself, suppressing some voices in favour of others. This is what a historical anthology ought to be like.' Lorna Sage, The Observer

'there is much to be gleaned from the 870 pages of this anthology ... The songs of Sheridan, Congreve, etc., come as gusts of fresh air in a drawing-room.' The Irish Times

'the greatest pleasure in this superb anthology is given by the forgotten poets whom Professor Lonsdale has rescued from oblivion' Charles Osborne, Sunday Telegraph

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