The Lives of the Poets


Book Description

'If a man is to write A Panegyrick, he may keep vices out of sight; but if he professes to write A Life, he must represent it really as it was.' In the last of his major writings, Samuel Johnson looked back over the previous two centuries of English Literature in order to describe the personalities as well as the achievements of the leading English poets. The major Lives - of Milton, Dryden, Swift, and Pope - are memorable cameos of the life of writing in which Johnson is as attentive to human frailty as to literary prowess. The shorter Lives preserve some of Johnson's most piercing, critical judgements. Unsentimental, opinionated, and quotable, The Lives of the Poets continues to influence the reputations of the writers concerned. It is one of the greatest works of English criticism, but also one of the most humanly diverting. This selection of the Lives of ten of the most important poets draws its text from Roger Lonsdale's authoritative complete edition. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.




100 Great Poets of the English Language


Book Description

100 Great Poets provides a concise but comprehensive overview of the poetic tradition in English. Chronologically arranged, the book presents the major poets from Beowulf to the present with representative examples from each author. The headnotes and selections reflect the high notes of each poet s career the classic poems that have earned an enduring place in the canon of English language literature.




The Best Poems of the English Language


Book Description

This comprehensive anthology attempts to give the common reader possession of six centuries of great British and American poetry. The book features a large introductory essay by Harold Bloom called "The Art of Reading Poetry," which presents his critical reflections of more than half a century devoted to the reading, teaching, and writing about the literary achievement he loves most. In the case of all major poets in the language, this volume offers either the entire range of what is most valuable in their work, or vital selections that illuminate each figure's contribution. There are also headnotes by Harold Bloom to every poet in the volume as well as to the most important individual poems. Much more than any other anthology ever gathered, this book provides readers who desire the pleasures of a sublime art with very nearly everything they need in a single volume. It also is regarded as his final meditation upon all those who have formed his mind.













Three Romantic Poets


Book Description

THREE ROMANTIC POETS: EMILY BRONTE, JOHN KEATS, PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY SELECTED POEMS Edited and introduced by L.M. Poole Three great Romantics poets are featured in this anthology - Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats and Emily Bronte. The book includes all of their famous poems. Emily Bronte as a poet is still neglected today. Her novel Wuthering Heights, however, remains one of the great English novels. It continues to sell, continues to be adapted for radio, theatre, film and television, continues to inspire readers and be cited by critics. The wind whistling through the heather in Winter is indeed the atmosphere of Wuthering Heights, and also of Bronte's poetry. In poem after poem we find loving evocations of the moors: we hear of 'the breezy moor' (in "The starry night shall tidings bring"), the 'flowerless moors' (in "How still, how happy! Those are words"), and of 'the moors where the linnet was trilling/ Its song on the old granite stone' (in "Loud without the wind was roaring," the most powerful of Bronte's moor-poems). John Keats is one of the few British poets who is truly ecstatic andwild. Despite the overly-ornate language, the often awkwardphrases ('made sweet moan' in 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci'), despite the Romantic indulgences and the sometimes chauvinist views, theoften over-simplification of natural and human processes andexperiences, and despite the tendency to gush and exaggerate, Keats is one of the few poets who write in English who is truly furious and shamanic. This book gathers the most potent passages from John Keats together, including the famous 'Odes', the sonnets, the luxuriously sensuous 'Eve of St Agnes', the mysterious and atmospheric 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci', and extracts from 'Lamia', Endymion and Hyperion. Percy Shelley is one of the major British poets, seen by many people as the breathless, hyper-lyrical, angelic yet anarchic poet of the Romantic era, out-doing Lord Byron and John Keats in terms of sheer brilliance. His personality, as with Keats and Byron, is a crucial component in the Shelley legend. Shelley has a cult built up around him. The book includes a selection of Shelley's odes, hymns and paeans of England's breathless, angelic, anarchic poet. Famous poems, such as 'Ode to the West Wind' and 'The Cloud', are set beside extracts from Prometheus Unbound and Epipsychidion. With an introduction and bibliography for each poet. Plus a portrait gallery for each poet. www.crmoon.com."




English Romantic Poetry


Book Description

Rich selection of 123 poems by six great English Romantic poets: William Blake (24 poems), William Wordsworth (27 poems), Samuel Taylor Coleridge (10 poems), Lord Byron (16 poems), Percy Bysshe Shelley (24 poems) and John Keats (22 poems). Introduction and brief commentaries on the poets. Includes 2 selections from the Common Core State Standards Initiative: "Ozymandias" and "Ode on a Grecian Urn."