English Poetry Before Chaucer
Distributed for Liverpool University Press
400 pages
|
9-1/5 x 6-1/5
A new and completely revised edition of this authoritative work, intended to encourage personal appreciation and independent appraisal by students of English. This is a stimulating introduction to the poetry composed in an age that witnessed fundamental cultural developments: the emergence of the English from among the warring tribes of Europe, their conversion to Christianity, the development of feudalism and the chivalric myth, the military adventure of the Crusades, and the growth of a vigorous citizen class in the burgeoning towns of England.
Speculum
“Swanton writes with real intelligence and great energy, and many of his brief essays on individual works become quite powerful statements . . . he is a sympathetic and at times superb reader of the poetry.” –Speculum
Contents
Preface
1. Introduction: Anxiety and Assertion
2. Until the Dragon Comes
Widsith, Deor, Waldere, The Fight at Finnsburh and Beowulf
3. Verbum de Verbo
Caedmon’s Creation Hymn, Genesis A, Exodus and The Dream of the Rood
4. The Ruin of Time
The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Ruin and The Phoenix
5. A Certain Heroism
Guthlac A, Judith, The Battle of Maldon and Layamon’s Brut
6. Things That Falleth to Ribaudrie
Havelok, Sir Tristrem, Floris and Blancheflour and Madam Sirith and the Weeping Bitch
7. Song and Singer
I Walk with Sorrow, Lenten is Come with Love to Town, The Fair Maid of Ribblesdale, Thomas of Hales’ Love-Song, Gabriel’s Greeting to the Virgin Mary, Ubi Sount Qui Ante Nos Fuerount, The Follies of Fashion, A Song of Lewes, The Thrush and Nightingale and The Owl and the Nightingale
Epilogue: The Equal Hour
Appendix: Early English Prosody
Chronology
Further Reading
Notes on Individual Writes, Works and Sources
(i) Writers and writings in English
(ii) Writers and writings in languages other than English
Index
1. Introduction: Anxiety and Assertion
2. Until the Dragon Comes
Widsith, Deor, Waldere, The Fight at Finnsburh and Beowulf
3. Verbum de Verbo
Caedmon’s Creation Hymn, Genesis A, Exodus and The Dream of the Rood
4. The Ruin of Time
The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Ruin and The Phoenix
5. A Certain Heroism
Guthlac A, Judith, The Battle of Maldon and Layamon’s Brut
6. Things That Falleth to Ribaudrie
Havelok, Sir Tristrem, Floris and Blancheflour and Madam Sirith and the Weeping Bitch
7. Song and Singer
I Walk with Sorrow, Lenten is Come with Love to Town, The Fair Maid of Ribblesdale, Thomas of Hales’ Love-Song, Gabriel’s Greeting to the Virgin Mary, Ubi Sount Qui Ante Nos Fuerount, The Follies of Fashion, A Song of Lewes, The Thrush and Nightingale and The Owl and the Nightingale
Epilogue: The Equal Hour
Appendix: Early English Prosody
Chronology
Further Reading
Notes on Individual Writes, Works and Sources
(i) Writers and writings in English
(ii) Writers and writings in languages other than English
Index
For more information, or to order this book, please visit http://www.press.uchicago.edu
Google preview here
Literature and Literary Criticism: British and Irish Literature
You may purchase this title at these fine bookstores. Outside the USA, see our international sales information.
