English verse: voice and movement from Wyatt to Yeats
Every poet has a characteristic tone of voice, and his own rhythm. The author's chief interest is this 'sound poems make in the head', and his particular gift is to help us to hear what is going on in the individual poem, and to catch the poet's individuality. We also hear how each poet develops the forms his predecessors have used. In this way, we move from a consideration of single voices to the development of particular forms (like the couplet or blank verse) and the characteristics of whole periods. This book, then, has several uses. While verse as sound is its main concern, it can be read as an introductory history of English verse from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. Since the author quotes generously, he also provides as he goes along an unhackneyed anthology in chronological order. In addition, he comments in detail on many of the poems, so that the book is a demonstration of the methods and uses of practical criticism
Criticism, interpretation, etc
ix, 324 pages 23 cm
953508
The Sixteenth Century
Blank Verse
The Seventeenth Century
The Eighteenth Century
The Romantics
The Victorians
The Twentieth Century