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 187
... waves , resistless heave . And hark ! the length'ning roar continuous runs Athwart the rifted main ; at once it bursts , And piles a thousand mountains to the clouds ! Ill fares the bark , the wretches ' last resort , That , lost amid ...
... waves , resistless heave . And hark ! the length'ning roar continuous runs Athwart the rifted main ; at once it bursts , And piles a thousand mountains to the clouds ! Ill fares the bark , the wretches ' last resort , That , lost amid ...
Page 672
... waves run high , On the tossed vessel bend their eager eye , Which to their coast directs its vent'rous way , Theirs , or the ocean's , miserable prey . As on their neighbouring beach yon swallows stand , And wait for favouring winds to ...
... waves run high , On the tossed vessel bend their eager eye , Which to their coast directs its vent'rous way , Theirs , or the ocean's , miserable prey . As on their neighbouring beach yon swallows stand , And wait for favouring winds to ...
Page 787
... wave ? Plunging through the swelling tide , What prows the whit'ning brine divide ? ' Tis Albion's bloody cross that ... waves the scourge on high , Patient Misery heaves the sigh ; 30 Lo ! meagre Famine drains the vital springs , And ...
... wave ? Plunging through the swelling tide , What prows the whit'ning brine divide ? ' Tis Albion's bloody cross that ... waves the scourge on high , Patient Misery heaves the sigh ; 30 Lo ! meagre Famine drains the vital springs , And ...
Contents
JOHN POMFRET 16671702 | 1 |
THOMAS DURFEY 16531723 | 5 |
JOHN PHILIPS 16761709 | 6 |
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