Publisher's Synopsis
An anthology of English poets' writings on their art, fellow poets and poetic genres, this book provides a record of the history and progress of English poetry, collecting in a single chronological sequence all the major figures in English poetry from Chaucer to Yeats, and their responses to each other, ranging from elegiac eulogy to burlesque and satire.;The anthology is arranged in two sections: Part One, "On Poetry", contains poets' writings on the nature, qualities and purpose of poetry and includes insights from, among others, Shakespeare, Sidney, Milton, Pope and Shelley.;Part Two, "On Poets" contains poets' writings on their peers, with an individual entry for each poet. Included are influential revaluations - for example, Coleridge on Donne - as well as comment on poetic genres - Carew on Elizabethan Ovidians, Pope on the Metaphysicals, Byron on the Lake Poets.;Each extract is presented in modernized spelling and punctuation and is annotated to provide full explanations of unfamiliar phrases and references.
