First published in 1978, Alexander Pope is an introduction to Pope’s life and work, which sets the poet solidly in his age and relates the liveliness and variety of his poetry to the strange combination of chronic invalidism and a sociable disposition which marked his life. G. S. Fraser argues that Pope is a more varied figure than his reputation as a great satirist indicates and that he is in some ways more a survivor from the Restoration than a precursor of middle-class morality...

First published in 1970, this work outlines the principles of English prosody in a way that will enable the reader to recognise and scan any piece of English verse. It illustrates the close relationship between English speech patterns and verse patterns, and the primary importance of the phenomenon of stress. It also discusses the suitability of various kinds of metrical pattern for various kinds of poetic effect.This book will be of interest to those studying poetry and English li...

Why is there such a striking difference between English spelling and English pronunciation? How did our seemingly relatively simple grammar rules develop? What are the origins of regional dialect, literary language, and everyday speech, and what do they have to do with you?Seth Lerer's Inventing English is a masterful, engaging history of the English language from the age of Beowulf to the rap of Eminem. Many have written about the evolution of our grammar, pronun...

Now in its fourth edition, Poetry: The Basics remains an engaging exploration of the exciting and diverse world of poetry. Jeffrey Wainwright’s accessible introduction demystifies poetic forms and traditions, which can at first seem bewildering.Drawing on examples ranging from Chaucer to children's rhymes, Cole Porter to Dylan Thomas, and from around the English-speaking world, it shows how any reader can understand and gain pleasure from poetry. This comprehensive guide e...

Poetry criticism is a subject central to the study of literature. However, it is laden with technical terms that, to the beginning student, can be both intimidating and confusing. Philip Hobsbaum provides a welcome remedy, illuminating terms ranging from the iambus to the bob-wheel stanza, and forms from the Spenserian sonnet to modern 'rap', with clarity and comprehensiveness. It is an essential guide through the terminology which will be invaluable reading for undergraduates new to the s...

Grief and mourning are generally considered to be private, yet universal instincts. But in a media age of televised funerals and visible bereavement, elegies are increasingly significant and open to public scrutiny. Providing an overview of the history of the term and the different ways in which it is used, David Kennedy:outlines the origins of elegy, and the characteristics of the genreexamines the psychology and cultural background underlying works of mourning

Drawing on his extensive experience of poetry workshops and courses, Peter Sansom shows you not how to write but how to write better, how to write authentically, how to say genuinely what you genuinely mean to say. This practical guide is illustrated with many examples. Peter Sansom covers such areas as submitting to magazines; the small presses; analysing poems; writing techniques and procedures;and drafting. He includes brief resumes and discussions of literary history and literar...

Shakespearean thinking is always dynamic: thinking that happens in the living moment of its performance, in quickly passing process. This book offers a model of human mentality that can be shown through the dense immediacy of dramatic thinking, as embodied above all in Shakespeare's working method. Shakespeare Thinking discusses the positioning of Shakespeare as the paradigm of fully human mental creativity from the Romantics to the latest neurological experiments which show that ...

Enable students to achieve their best grade in AS/A-level English Literature with this year-round course companion; designed to instil in-depth textual understanding as students read, analyse and revise the AQA A Poetry Anthology throughout the course.This Study and Revise guide:- Increases students' knowledge of the AQA A Poetry Anthology as they progress through the detailed commentary and contextual information written by experienced te...

This essay forms Chapter 5 of my ebook: A Christian Pattern In Shakespeare’s Tragedies: Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, and Othello, available at Lulu. It argues that Macbeth and Richard III are less similar than many think. An ambitious person is someone for whom the possession of the ancillary ends of prestige, authority, power and/or fame leads directly to the obtainment of the final end, happiness; for him the possession of these ancillary ends therefore is a means to the final end, happin...

Part of the GREAT PHILOSOPHERS series.George Berkeley 1685-1753A scientist, theologian and writer on medicine and economics, George Berkeley was in his way a most improbable philosopher. A master of English prose, he was suspicious of language; scornful of abstractions, he looked instead to immediate experience for the basis of his thought.David Berman's readable guide traces Berkeley's experimentalism - for experiments with sight and touch to near-...

This book narrates the history of English spelling from the Anglo-Saxons to the present-day, charting the various changes that have taken place and the impact these have had on the way we spell today. While good spelling is seen as socially and educationally desirable, many people struggle to spell common words like accommodate, occurrence, dependent. Is it our spelling system that is to blame, and should we therefore reform English spelling to make it easier to learn? Or are such calls fo...