This broad-ranging Companion offers readers a thorough grounding in both the background and the substance of eighteenth-century poetry in all its rich variety.* Provides an up-to-date and wide-ranging guide to eighteenth-century poetry* Reflects the dramatic transformation which has taken place in the study of eighteenth-century poetry over the past two decades* Opens with a section on contexts, discussing poetry's relationships with patriotism, politics, science, and the visual arts, for example* Discusses poetry by male and female poets from all walks of life* Includes numerous close readings of individual poems, ranging from Pope's The Rape of the Lock to Mary Collier's The Woman's Labour* Includes more provocative contributions on subjects such as rural poetry and the self-taught tradition, British poetry 'beyond the borders', the constructions of femininity, women as writers and women as readers.* Designed to be used alongside David Fairer and Christine Gerrard's Eighteenth-Century Poetry: An Annotated Anthology, 3rd edition (Wiley Blackwell, 2014)

Notes on Contributors ixAcknowledgments xvIntroduction 1Christine GerrardPART I Contexts and Perspectives 51 Poetry, Politics, and the Rise of Party 7Christine Gerrard2 Poetry, Politics, and Empire 23Suvir Kaul3 Poetry and Science 38Clark Lawlor4 Poetry and Religion 53Emma Mason5 Poetic Enthusiasm 69John D. Morillo6 Poetry and the Visual Arts 83Robert Jones7 Poetry, Popular Culture, and the Literary Marketplace 97George Justice8 Women Poets and Their Writing in Eighteenth-Century Britain 111Charlotte Grant9 Poetry, Sentiment, and Sensibility 127Jennifer KeithPART II Readings 14310 John Gay, The Shepherd's Week 145Mina Gorji11 Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock and "Eloisa to Abelard" 157Valerie Rumbold12 Jonathan Swift, the "Stella" Poems 170Ros Ballaster13 Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Six Town Eclogues and Other Poems 184Isobel Grundy14 James Thomson, The Seasons 197Christine Gerrard15 Stephen Duck, The Thresher's Labour, and Mary Collier, The Woman's Labour 209John Goodridge16 Mary Leapor, "Crumble-Hall" 223David Fairer17 Mark Akenside, The Pleasures of Imagination 237Adam Rounce18 Samuel Johnson, London and The Vanity of Human Wishes 252David F. Venturo19 William Collins, "Ode on the Poetical Character" 265John Sitter20 Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard 277Suvir Kaul21 Christopher Smart, Jubilate Agno 290Chris Mounsey22 Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village, and George Crabbe, The Village 303Caryn Chaden23 William Cowper, The Task 316Freya Johnston24 Robert Burns, "Tam o' Shanter" 329Murray PittockPART III Forms and Genres 33925 Rhyming Couplets and Blank Verse 341Richard Bradford26 Epic and Mock-Heroic 356Richard Terry27 Verse Satire 369Brean Hammond28 The Ode 386Margaret M. Koehler29 The Georgic 403Juan Christian Pellicer30 The Verse Epistle 417Bill OvertonPART IV Themes and Debates 42931 The Constructions of Femininity 431Kathryn R. King32 Whig and Tory Poetics 444Abigail Williams33 The Classical Inheritance 458David Hopkins34 Augustanism and Pre-Romanticism 473Thomas Woodman35 Recovering the Past: Shakespeare, Spenser, and British Poetic Tradition 486Carolyn D. Williams36 The Pleasures and Perils of the Imagination 500Paul Baines37 The Sublime 515Shaun Irlam38 Poetry and the City 534Markman Ellis39 Cartography and the Poetry of Place 549Rachel Crawford40 Rural Poetry and the Self-Taught Tradition 563Bridget Keegan41 Poetry Beyond the English Borders 577Gerard CarruthersIndex 590