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Product Description
Product Description
The era between the accession of Henry VIII and the crisis of the English republic in 1659 formed one of the most fertile epochs in world literature. This anthology offers a broad selection of its poetry, and includes a wide range of works by the great poets of the age - notably Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Sepnser, John Donne, William Shakespeare and John Milton. Poems by less well-known writers also feature prominently - among them significant female poets such as Lady Mary Wroth and Katherine Philips. Compelling and exhilarating, this landmark collection illuminates a time of astonishing innovation, imagination and diversity.
About the Author
David Norbrook is Fellow and Tutor in English at Magdalen College, Oxford and Lecturer in English at the University of Oxford. He is the author of Poetry and Politics in the English Renaissance (Routledge, 1984).
H. R. Woudhuysen is a lecturer in the Department of English at University College London. He has edited Samuel Johnson on Shakespeare for the New Penguin Shakespeare Library.
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I've already gradauted with an English degree and am no longer even studying in the field.
So - somewhat strangely - I bought this book of verse to read for pleasure. Even after three years of a degree, whilst I'd covered a relatively wide range of material from the period, this book leaves no stone unturned in selecting verses from the Renaissance.
From major poets such as Shakespeare, Spenser, Marvell, Herbert and Donne etc to slightly minor figures such as Southwell, Campion, Denham and even Elizabeth I, the entire spectrum is covered. What is great about this volume is that poems are arranged by topic/theme. So all the ones about love are stuck together, religion too and 'topographical verse' etc. It makes the anthology effortless and easy to dip into, with at least a vague idea of what you're looking at; at the same time, if one were studying a certain theme or genre, then this arrangement would be even more invaluable.
Considering that I spent a similar amount on the Arden collection on Shakespeare's sonnets, to get an anthology of verse from this golden age which is so thorough and well edited for just over a tenner is remarkable. This is one book which, even if left in the cupboard for a couple of years, will continue to deliver utility and enjoyment for decades to come.
So - somewhat strangely - I bought this book of verse to read for pleasure. Even after three years of a degree, whilst I'd covered a relatively wide range of material from the period, this book leaves no stone unturned in selecting verses from the Renaissance.
From major poets such as Shakespeare, Spenser, Marvell, Herbert and Donne etc to slightly minor figures such as Southwell, Campion, Denham and even Elizabeth I, the entire spectrum is covered. What is great about this volume is that poems are arranged by topic/theme. So all the ones about love are stuck together, religion too and 'topographical verse' etc. It makes the anthology effortless and easy to dip into, with at least a vague idea of what you're looking at; at the same time, if one were studying a certain theme or genre, then this arrangement would be even more invaluable.
Considering that I spent a similar amount on the Arden collection on Shakespeare's sonnets, to get an anthology of verse from this golden age which is so thorough and well edited for just over a tenner is remarkable. This is one book which, even if left in the cupboard for a couple of years, will continue to deliver utility and enjoyment for decades to come.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I bought this for my degree course and it has been very useful indeed. The only downside to it is that if you want to look up a poem you are given a poem number, not a page number, so you have to flick through the book for some time to find it. I've noticed some cooking books are laid out in this way too but somehow the need to find a work quickly was most evident when our lecturer was attempting to do so in front of 200 students (very amusing)which resulted in him making this same complaint on it's layout. Apart from that the book is fantastic with so much jammed into it.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
A book for class I would have read for leisure
26 May 2001
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I was assigned this book in an English Renaissance literature class. This collection provides a fascinating insight into the English Renaissance. There are selections by the normal poets: Shakespeare, Spenser, etc. There are also selections by female poets, including Elizabeth I. I learned so much from this book in terms of literature, culture, and life. If you are interested in this time period, or in the British Isles, this book is essential!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
good selection, poor organization
8 Sep 2009
Format:Paperback
I liked the selection of poetry in this collection, but I don't like how the poems are organized by theme rather than author. Many of the poems, of course, engage multiple themes, so the organization system is really a bit reductive and, for that matter, scattered.
challenging, but great
9 May 2011
Format:Paperback
This is the best anthology I know of the period, with other contenders out of print (unless there are new ones I don't know about). The most challenging thing is probably that the poems are left, as much as possible, in their original language, spelling, etc. But there are things to like about that, too, i.e. that, in a period when such things as spelling had not been regularized, there are tools a poet might have that differ from what one has in a language that is more settled. I.e. with what a modern poet has called "the Elizabethan care for the sound of syllables," how one might develop near rhymes and sight rhymes (and the bulk of poetry of this period is rhyming poetry) is multiplied.
One true gem in this anthology, not found in all, is Sir Walter Ralegh's "The 21th: and last booke of the Ocean to Scinthia." I think this is one of the great poems of the period, yet, because it was discovered somewhat more recently, it's not yet nearly as well know as it should be.
I understand one reviewer's concern that perhaps an organization by author might have been easier to fathom, but the organization by theme makes sense to me, too, and they are the key themes of the period, and no matter, the contents and indexing are so good that it is easy to find any poem in the book for whatever reason one wants to read it. I've been reading in and through and around the book for a year now, and I love it.
One true gem in this anthology, not found in all, is Sir Walter Ralegh's "The 21th: and last booke of the Ocean to Scinthia." I think this is one of the great poems of the period, yet, because it was discovered somewhat more recently, it's not yet nearly as well know as it should be.
I understand one reviewer's concern that perhaps an organization by author might have been easier to fathom, but the organization by theme makes sense to me, too, and they are the key themes of the period, and no matter, the contents and indexing are so good that it is easy to find any poem in the book for whatever reason one wants to read it. I've been reading in and through and around the book for a year now, and I love it.
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