The New Oxford Book of Eighteenth Century VerseRoger H. Lonsdale, Roger Lonsdale 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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Page 344
... Night Thoughts on Life , Death and Immortality from Night I TIRED Nature's sweet restorer , balmy Sleep ! He , like the world , his ready visit pays Where fortune smiles ; the wretched he forsakes : Swift on his downy pinion flies from ...
... Night Thoughts on Life , Death and Immortality from Night I TIRED Nature's sweet restorer , balmy Sleep ! He , like the world , his ready visit pays Where fortune smiles ; the wretched he forsakes : Swift on his downy pinion flies from ...
Page 346
... night proclaims my soul immortal : Ev'n silent night proclaims eternal day . For human weal , heaven husbands all events ; Dull sleep instructs , nor sport vain dreams in vain . from Night VII . The Infidel Reclaimed There's naught ...
... night proclaims my soul immortal : Ev'n silent night proclaims eternal day . For human weal , heaven husbands all events ; Dull sleep instructs , nor sport vain dreams in vain . from Night VII . The Infidel Reclaimed There's naught ...
Page 863
... Night ! dark Night ! wrapped round with Stygian gloom ! O rose , thou art sick : 274 376 457 O ruddier than the cherry , 91 O say what is that thing called light , 161 O ! synge untoe mie roundelaie , 360 O thou that in the heavens does ...
... Night ! dark Night ! wrapped round with Stygian gloom ! O rose , thou art sick : 274 376 457 O ruddier than the cherry , 91 O say what is that thing called light , 161 O ! synge untoe mie roundelaie , 360 O thou that in the heavens does ...
Contents
JOHN POMFRET 16671702 | 1 |
THOMAS DURFEY 16531723 | 5 |
JOHN PHILIPS 16761709 | 6 |
Copyright | |
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