English Romantic Poets - Preface to the Second Edition

Sep 20, 2026

Uploaded by Violet

A critical anthology gathering modern essays on major English Romantic poets and their representative works. The preface explains the book’s emphasis on literary interpretation and assessment, contrasting old and new critical approaches and tracing shifts in sensibility and poetic standards. It outlines how the second edition revises its selections by omitting essays superseded by later scholarship while adding new studies marked in the contents.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages494

Reading Time12 h 41 min

AccessFree to download

Preface to the Second Edition

The Romantic Period

On the Discrimination of Romanticisms

The Structure of Romantic Nature Imagery

The Correspondent Breeze: A Romantic Metaphor

Blake's Treatment of the Archetype

# POETS Modern Essays in Criticism Edited by MH ABRAMS ## ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETS This page intentionally left blank ## EnglishRomantic Poets MODERN ESSAYS IN CRITICISM SECOND EDITION Edited by M.H.ABRAMS Cornell University OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON OXFORD NEW YORK OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESSOxfordLondonGlasgowNew YorkTorontoMelbourneWellingtonNairobiDar es SalaamCape TownKuala LumpurSingapore JJakarta Hong Kong TokyDelhiBombayCalcuttaMadrasKarachi Copyright 1975 by Oxford University Press,Inc.Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number:75-4205First published by Oxford University Press,New York,1975First published as an Oxford University Press paperback,1975Printed in the United States of America printing,last digit:20191817161514 THIS BOOx brings together essays written during the last ffty years onthe major English poets of the Romantic Age.Three of the essays aregeneral;others focus upon individual writers or particular works.Withthe exception of A.O.Lovejoy's classic "Discrimination of Romanti-cisms,"the emphasis is critical;those of the included writings whichdeal with literary history or with the life and ideas of a poet bringthese materials to bear on the matter and mode of his poetry and onthe interpretation and assessment of particular poems. A new edition of this book provides the chance to leave out variousessays which have been to some degree superseded and to add manyothers which represent current critical and scholarly developments.When the collection was put together in 196o it included a number ofessays,written in opposition to each other,which were part of thegreat debate about the Romantic achievement that began in the 1920'sand 1930's.In the last two decades or so,that debate has largely beenresolved in favor of the Romantic poets,to the extent that it has be-come common to claim that modern writers,who were earlier praisedon the grounds that they were anti-Romantic,are in fact latter-dayexemplars of Romantic innovations.Among the essays retained fromthe first edition,however,are several which represent the debate,since they are valuable in themselves and also serve as a prime indexto the drastic shifts in sensibility and poetic standards during the gen-eration or so just past.Items which have been added in the presentedition are indicated in the Contents by an asterisk. The original and added critiques cover the major poems by each ofthe major poets and also,taken together,represent the chief modernalignments in dealing with poetry-old criticism and new criticism,discursive and explicative,mimetic and rhetorical,literal and mythical,archetypal and phenomenological,pro and con.Within this spectrum, PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION each contribution was chosen as a distinguished instance of its pointof view. The many scholars who have generously responded to my requestsfor counsel know the pain it cost to omit essays that demand admissionby every criterion except the availability of space.But nature,Imlacobserved,"sets her gifts on the right hand and on the left....Of theblessings set before you,make your choice and be content.” M.H.ABRAMS Ithaca,New YorkNovember 1974 ## The Romantic Period ARTHUR O.LOVEJoY On the Discrimination of Romanticisms 3w.x.WIMSATT The Structure of Romantic Nature Imagery 25 M.H.ABRAMS The Correspondent Breeze:A Romantic Metaphor 37 Blake NORTHROP FRYE®Blake's Treatment of the Archetype 55DAVID V.ERDMAN°Blake:The Historical Approach 72 ROBERT F,GLECKNER Point of View and Context in Blake's Songs 90HAROLD BLOOM Blake's Apocalypse:"Jerusalem’98 Wordsworth BASIL.WILLEY On Wordsworth and the Locke Tradition 112GEOFFAEY H.HARTMAN°Nature and the Humanization of the Self inWordsworth 123 PAUL D.SHEATS The ‘Lyrical Ballads'133LIONEL TRILLING The Immortality Ode 149JONATHAN WORDSWORTE Wordsworth's "Borderers'170 Coleridge C.M.HARPER Coleridge's Conversation Poems 188 G.W.KNICHT Coleridge's Divine Comedy 202 HUMPHRY HOUSE The Ancient

FAQs

What is the purpose of the second edition’s preface?

It explains why essays from earlier editions were omitted or retained and why new critical material was added.

What kind of criticism do the essays emphasize?

The collection mainly emphasizes critical interpretation and assessment, rather than purely historical or biographical discussion, while still using those materials to illuminate poetry and specific poems.

How does the book frame the debate about Romantic achievement?

It describes an earlier debate during the 1920s and 1930s and notes that, over the last two decades, the argument has largely shifted in favor of the Romantic poets.

Sep 20, 2026

Uploaded by Violet