The British Poets Of The Nineteenth Century

The critical assumption of British Poetry of the Nineteenth Century is that, while the history of English letters constantly expands and changes, the study of the past has an intrinsic value inasmuch as it enables us to rise above the often restrictive or reductive vantage point of our present moment. Gurney is articulate and convincing when, for example, he argues that Milton is not only of historical value insofar as some knowledge of his works is necessary to understand the reactions he engendered in romantic poets like Blake, Shelley, and the Brontes, but also for the foothold that he gives us outside the constricting circle of our age. For the themes he explores and the sensitivities he fosters are precisely those that our age may have forgotten - and that, therefore, we have the greatest need to hear and consider.

This anthology surveys Britain's golden years of poetry--the "long" nineteenth century. College students are introduced to the most frequently studied poems of eighteen poets, each afforded roughly equal space. Neither too condensed nor too comprehensive, this 436-page collection is designed specifically for six to eight weeks of poetry study in a British literature course.

In arguing for the crucial importance of song for poets in the long nineteenth century, Elizabeth Helsinger focuses on both the effects of song on lyric forms and the mythopoetics through which poets explored the affinities of poetry with song. Looking in particular at individual poets and poems, Helsinger puts extensive close readings into productive conversation with nineteenth-century German philosophic and British scientific aesthetics. While she considers poets long described as "musical"--Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Gerard Manly Hopkins, Emily Brontë, and Algernon Charles Swinburne--Helsinger also examines the more surprising importance of song for those poets who rethought poetry through the medium of visual art: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris, and Christina Rossetti. In imitating song's forms and sound textures through lyric's rhythm, rhyme, and repetition, these poets were pursuing song's "thought" in a double sense. They not only asked readers to think of particular kinds of song as musical sound in social performance (ballads, national airs, political songs, plainchant) but also invited readers to think like song: to listen to the sounds of a poem as it moves minds in a different way from philosophy or science. By attending to the formal practices of these poets, the music to which the poets were listening, and the stories and myths out of which each forged a poetics that aspired to the condition of music, Helsinger suggests new ways to think about the nature and form of the lyric in the nineteenth century.

Excerpt from British Poets of the Nineteenth Century: Poems by Wordsworth, Coleridge, Scott, Byron, Shelley, Keats, Landor, Tennyson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, Clough, Arnold, Rossetti, Morris, Swinburne A principal feature of the volume is the classified Reference Lists. I have tried to indicate, for each poet, the standard editions, other import ant editions, the best one-volume editions, the standard biography, the best brief biography, and all the important essays. The critical essays are usually classed in two paragraphs, and, throughout, the most import ant books or essays are indicated by asterisks. The Notes have been made as few and brief as possible; and critical comment, except that of the poet himself, or, in a few cases, of other poets, has been excluded from them. They give only essential facts re garding the poems, or comment and explanation added by the poet him self. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

An anthology of poetry by some of the greatest poets of the nineteenth century, including Byron, Shelley, Wordsworth, and Keats, offering a rich and varied exploration of the Romantic era. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.