What is the relation between the language being heard and the picture being simultaneously exhibited on the stage? Typically there is an identity between sound and sight, but often there is a divergence between what the audience hears and what is sees. These divergences are 'insets' and examines the motives, mechanics and poetic qualities of these narrative poems embedded in the plays.

First published in 1937.
This study argues that the plays of Shakespeare must be studied by comparison with each other and not as separate entities; that they must be related to one another, to the poems and to the Sonnets; that each individual play acquires a deeper significance from its setting in the corpus. Muir and O'Loughlin's critical analysis takes place against the personality of Shakespeare, asserting that that despite all their diversities a single mind and a single hand dominate them and that they are the outcome of one man's critical and emotional reactions to life.

First published in 1979.
How do the elements of swearing and perjury work in Shakespeare's plays? What effect did Shakespeare intend when he wrote them? How did they contribute to the delineation of character? These questions are investigated by combining a history of ideas approach with close textual analysis.
The book begins by bringing together material from a wide range of contemporary sources in order to create a sense of popular awareness of oaths in Queen Elizabeth's time. Out of this emerges a scale of the relative strength of various oaths, an awareness of the ways in which people regarded perjury, and an appreciation of the attempts to prohibit profanity. Shakespeare's work is then examined against this background.

First published in 1961.
Critiquing the critics, and examining the vocabulary of twentieth century criticism of the Shakespearean tragedies, John Holloway's book covers Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Timon of Athens and the themes of Shakespearean Tragedy and the idea of human sacrifice and the concepts of myth and ritual in literature.

Introduces Skelton and his work to readers unfamiliar with the poet, gathers together the vibrant strands of existing research, and opens up new avenues for future studies. John Skelton is a central literary figure and the leading poet during the first thirty years of Tudor rule. Nevertheless, he remains challenging and even contradictory for modern audiences. This book aims to provide an authoritative guide to this complex poet and his works, setting him in his historical, religious, and social contexts. Beginning with an exploration of his life and career, it goes on to cover all the major aspects of his poetry, from the literary traditions in which he wrote and the form of his compositions to the manuscript contexts and later reception. SEBASTIAN SOBECKI is Professor of Medieval English Literature and Culture at the University of Groningen; JOHN SCATTERGOOD is Professor (Emeritus) of Medieval and Renaissance English at Trinity College, Dublin. Contributors: Tom Betteridge, Julia Boffey, John Burrow, David Carlson, Helen Cooper, Elisabeth Dutton,A.S.G. Edwards, Jane Griffiths, Nadine Kuipers, Carol Meale, John Scattergood, Sebastian Sobecki, Greg Waite

Scholars do not agree on how best to describe Shelley's philosophical stance. His work has been variously taken to be that of a skeptic or a skeptical and subjective idealist. The study presents a new interpretation of Shelley's thinking - an interpretation that places 'intellectual system' squarely within the Epicurean tradition of Lucretius, casting both poets as theistic empiricists. To establish Shelley as working in the Epicurean tradition, this study explores Lucretius' De Rerum Natura as edited, translated and interpreted by two Epicurean scholars roughly contemporary with Shelley: Gilbert Wakefield and John Mason Good. These scholars rehabilitated Lucretius by drawing on three major seventeenth-century thinkers, Pierre Gassendi, Ralph Cudworth and Nicholas Malebranche. Like Shelley, each of these thinkers rejected the reduction of philosophy to mechanical and atomistic elements, a reduction which Shelley referred to as 'materialism' or 'popular dualism'. What Shelley rejected is a clue to what he embraced: a fusion of Enlightenment Rationalism with British Empiricism. Such a fusion is the distinguishing mark of the work of Sir William Drummond, the only contemporary philosopher that Shelley consistently praised. This is the tradition within which Shelley ultimately stands - one that brings into balance what is given to the mind a priori and what the mind creates.

The eighteenth edition of the International Who's Who in Poetry is a unique and comprehensive guide to the leading lights and freshest talent in poetry today. Containing biographies of more than 4,000 contemporary poets world-wide, this essential reference work provides truly international coverage. In addition to the well known poets, talented up-and-coming writers are also profiled.

Key Features:

- each entry provides full career history and publication details

- appendices section lists international prizes, organizations and poetry publications, lists of Poets Laureate.

The distinctively Spanish approach to reality and the visual image in painting and poetry. The guiding principle of The Spanish Eye is that the 'sister arts' of painting and poetry are mutually illuminating, their common currency being the visual image. The merits of five masters -El Greco, Velazquez, Goya, Picasso and Dali- are described, with a view to distinguishing what is peculiarly Spanish in their way of looking at reality. Each is related to his cultural context and to a major contemporary poet: St John of the Cross, Gongora, Espronceda, Guillen and Lorca. The overarching theme is that Spanish painters, no less than poets, have a distinctive take on reality: namely, one that fluctuates between the extremes of transcendentalism and hyper-realism, often mixing both. The book is aimed at art historians and aficionados - who need no knowledge of Spanish since all quotations are given in translation- and equally at students of Spanish. Both will find that the comparative approachprovides an unusually direct understanding of mysticism, the baroque, romanticism, modernism and surrealism, while enriching awareness of the power of the visual image. ROBERT HAVARD is Professor of Spanish at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Ovid: The Classical Heritage, first published in 1995, contains a diverse collection of reflections, ranging from the first century, through the Middle Ages, to the twentieth, on a poet who has been adored and reviled in equal measure. With the entire notion of 'Western culture' under duress, the need to establish continuity from antiquity to modernity is as pressing as ever. Each essay, selected by Professor Anderson, indicates an Ovidian theme or perspective which remains relevant to our self-understanding today. An enormous range of topics is investigated, in a variety of modes and styles: contemporary reaction, reception by Medieval Schoolmen, Ovid's influence on Chaucer, and his importance for the 'New Mythologists'. Overall, Ovid: The Classical Heritage offers a rich selection of essays, which cumulatively demonstrate the continuing importance and fascination of this great Roman poet.

Ovid, Rome's most cynical and worldly love poet, has not until recently been highly regarded among Latin poets. Now, however, his reputation is growing, and this volume is an important contribution to the re-establishment of Ovid's claims to critical attention. This collection of essays ranges over a wide variety of themes and works: Ovid's development of the Elegiac tradition handed down to him from Propertius, Catullus and Tibullus; the often disparaged and neglected Heroides; the poetry of Ovid's miserable exile by the Black Sea; the poetic diction of the Metamorphoses, Ovid's lengthy mythological epic which codified classical myth and legend, and has strong claims to be considered, with the exception of Virgil's Aeneid, Rome's greatest epic poem; humour and the blending of the didactic and elegiac traditions in the Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris. Finally, Ovid's incomparable influence in the Middle Ages and sixteenth century is examined.

In the Shadows of Divine Perfection provides an examination of Derek Walcott's Omeros 1990)- the St. Lucian poet's longest work, and the piece that secured his Nobel Laureate-that reveals the deep-seated bond between the root narratives of ancient Greece to the cultural products and practices of the contemporary Caribbean. This book presents the first detailed reading of Walcott's highly controversial attempt to craft a Caribbean master narrative. This book also presents an overview of the poem's ideological orientation and a far-reaching critique of current postcolonial theory. Lance Callahan engages some of the most vexing problems of authenticity by reading Walcott's work alongside ancient Greek literature and culture.

First published in 1988, this study explains how certain genres created by Classical poets were adapted and sometimes transformed by the poets of the modern world, beginning with the Tudor poets rediscovery of the Classical heritage. Most of the long-lived poetic genres are discussed, from familiar examples like the hymn, elegy and eulogy, to less familiar topics such as the "recusatio" (refusal to write certain kinds of poems), or formal structures such as "priamel." By combining criticism with literary history, the author explores the degree to which certain poets were consciously imitating models, and demonstrates how various generic forms reflect the literary concerns of individual poets as well as the general concerns of their age. The poets discussed range over the whole of Graeco-Roman antiquity, and in English from Wyatt to Yeats and Auden. A detailed and fascinating title, this study will appeal to teachers and students of both English and Classical literature. "

The People's Journal, `A Penny Saturday paper devoted to the interests of the Working Classes', was one of the most successful and culturally influential publications in Victorian Scotland. From the beginning, the Journal set out to represent ordinary men and women, providing a platform for their opinions and experiences, publishing readers' letters, stories, and especially their poetry. Collected here are more than one hundred examples of these poems - comical, sentimental, political and polemical - on a dizzy variety of subjects, from domestic pleasures and local events to national questions and foreign affairs. These works, written by tradesmen and women, factory workers, servants, and others, are both deeply fascinating and highly entertaining. Their voices are part of a literary heritage that deserves recovery, and their concerns and interests often chime, more than we might expect, with issues still very much current in the modern day.

This book, first published in 1958, aims to describe Greek art and poetry within this ambiguous period of ancient history (often referred to as the Greek 'Dark Ages'), and to explore the possibilities of learning about Mycenaean civilisation from its own documents and not only from archaeology. Specifically, Webster utilises Michael Ventris' decipherment of Linear B in 1952 - which proved that Greek was spoken in the Mycenaean world - to determine the general contours of aesthetic development from Mycenae to the time of the written composition of the Homeric epics. Because they record Mycenaean civilisation in Mycenaean terminology, while Homer was writing in Ionian Greek at the beginning of the polis civilisation, they show how much in Homer is in fact Mycenaean. Further, where it is clear that these Mycenaean elements cannot have survived until Homer's time, they tell us something about the poetry which connected the two.

Published in 1970, this important work interprets the poem with a focus on the idiosyncrasies of its originally oral composition. In part I, the main themes of the Odyssey such as 'guest-friendship' and 'testing' are investigated. The incorporation of these and other themes, such as 'omens' and the 'homecomings of the Achaeans', into the dramatic construction of the whole epic is also examined. In Part II, the main characters of the Odyssey are described: the Suitors, Telemachus, Odysseus and Penelope. So too are Theoclymenus and Laertes, whom traditional criticism has maligned or disregarded. The analysis of the characters tries to illumine features which are challenging for the contemporary reader. In the conclusion, the 'plan' of the Odyssey is reconstructed. The author argues that it would probably have been performed over the course of three days: two sessions each day, with each recitation maintaining its own artistic unity.

The author here reassesses the concept of 'masculinity', and argues that it cannot be seen as an absolute standard, but only as the product of perpetual conflict between competing and unstable models. The argument is sustained by a close reading of the problematic conflict between gendered values in eighteenth-century classical learning. Pope's Homer ensured the continuation of the tradition of using the Iliad and Odyssey to teach privileged boys how to become more 'manly'. This book examines this pedagogy in its socio-literary context, and concludes that Pope's Homer emerges as a relic of the struggle to preserve masculine dignity from the encroachments of feminine values in the text. This knowledge of classical and early modern literature has rarely been brought to bear on gender studies. First published in 1993, it remains a valuable contribution to debates concerning the reception of the Classical tradition.

The role of poetic allusion in classical Greek poetry, to Homer especially, has often largely been neglected or even almost totally ignored. This book, first published in 1990, clarifies the place of Homer in Greek education, as well as adding to the interpretation of many important tragedies. Focussing on the dramatic masterpieces of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and how these writers imitated and alluded to other poetry, the author reveals the immense dependence on Homer which can be seen throughout the corpus of Attic tragedy. It is argued that the practice of the art of allusion indicates certain conventions in fifth-century Athenian education, and perhaps also suggests something in the way of public, political, and historical self-awareness. Invaluable to anyone interested in the reception of Homer in the classical age, and to students of comparative literature and linguistic theory.

Here is presented a succinct and insightful account of the reception of the Iliad and Odyssey from antiquity to the mid-twentieth century. The overall result is less a systematic history than a series of independent studies differing in scale and focus, the chapter on Gladstone being the most comprehensive and detailed. First published in 1958. The author gives greatest attention to those who made active use of Homer rather than passive, even if admiring, readers: Virgil because he wrote the Aeneid, Gladstone because he brought him to prominence in Oxford education, Wood because he sought out the geography and Schliemann because he dug for the kings. The emphasis is thus placed less on the purely academic critic than on the traveller and the innovative amateur. A valuable contribution to a subject of perennial fascination, this will be of interest to all students and teachers of the classics.

From the critically acclaimed poet and classicist Anne Carson: a brilliant new translation of the work of Sappho, together with the original Greek. During her life on the island of Lesbos, Sappho is said to have composed nine books of lyrics. Only one poem has survived complete. In IF NOT, WINTER, Carson presents all the extant fragments of Sappho's verse, employing brackets and white space to denote missing text - allowing the reader to imagine the poems as they were written. Carson says of her method of translation: 'I like to think that, the more I stand out of the way, the more Sappho shows through.' And certainly her translation illuminates Sappho's reflections on love and desire, her companions and rivals, the goddess Aphrodite, her own daughter, Kleis. IF NOT, WINTER gives us an extraordinary ancient poet brought alive by a brilliantly empathetic contemporary poet. Complete with Carson's introduction and notes, it will become the standard translation of Sappho for our time.

First published in 1972.
Studying Shakespeare's 'art of preparation', this book illustrates the relationship between the techniques of preparation and the structure and theme of the plays. Other essays cover Shakespeare's use of the messenger's report, his handling of the theme of appearance and reality and the basic characteristics of Shakespearian drama.

Focusing on the significance of place, connection and relationship in three poets who are seldom considered in conjunction, Rory Waterman argues that Philip Larkin, R.S. Thomas and Charles Causley epitomize many of the emotional and societal shifts and mores of their age. Waterman looks at the foundations underpinning their poetry; the attempts of all three to forge a sense of belonging with or separateness from their readers; the poets' varying responses to their geographical and cultural origins; the belonging and estrangement that inheres in relationships, including marriage; the forced estrangements of war; the antagonism between social belonging and a need for isolation; and, finally, the charged issues of faith and mortality in an increasingly secularized country.

This is Volume V of thirteen the Oriental series looking at Persia. The Shahnama of Firdausi Vol II, includes the Kaianian Dynasty, Kai Kaus and the war with Mazandaran, the seven courses of Rustam, Kai Kaus in the land of Barbistan, the fight of the seven warriors, Suhrab, and the story of Siyawush.

In this concise introduction to Pope's life and work, first published in 1975, the poet's highly successful career as a man of letters is seen against the background of the Augustan age as a whole. Pat Rogers begins by examining the relationship of the eighteenth-century writer to his audience, and discusses the role of style and versification in this. The book covers the whole of Pope's work and includes not only the translations of Homer and such minor poems as The Temple of Fame, but also the prose, both drama and correspondence. Based on extensive research, this book will provide literature students with a greater appreciation and understanding of Pope's verse and the ways in which he addressed his eighteenth-century context in his work.

Making Nothing Happen is a conversation between five poet-theologians who are broadly within the Christian tradition - Nicola Slee, Ruth Shelton, Mark Pryce, Eleanor Nesbitt and Gavin D'Costa. Together they form The Diviners - a group which has been meeting together for a number of years for poetry, and theological and literary reflection. Each poet offers an illuminating reflection on how they understand the relation between poetry and faith, rooting their reflections in their own writing, and illustrating discussion with a selection of their own poems. The poets open up issues for deeper exploration and reflection, including: the nature of creativity and the distinction between divine and human creation; the creative process as exploration, epiphany and revelation; the forging of identity through writing; ways in which the arts reflect, challenge and dialogue with faith, and faith can inform and challenge the arts; power and voice in poetry and faith; and ways in which race, gender and culture interact with and shape poetic and theological discourse. This book will be of interest to poets and theologians, to all who read poetry and are interested in the connections between literature and faith, to those seeking inspiration for preaching, liturgy and pastoral care, and to those committed to the practice and nurturing of a contemplative attitude to life in which profound attention and respect are offered to words and to the creative Word at work.