English Poetry of the Eighteenth Century, 1700-1789 (Paperback, annotated edition)

In recent years the canon of eighteenth-century poetry has greatly expanded to include women poets, labouring-class and provincial poets, and many previously unheard voices. Fairer’s book takes up the challenge this ought to pose to our traditional understanding of the subject. He seeks to question some of the structures, categories, and labels that have given the age its reassuring shape in literary history. In doing so he offers a fresh and detailed look at a wide range of material. This study sets out to integrate the works of lesser known (even ‘unknown’) poets into the bigger picture by engaging them with the established writers. It tests general assumptions by emphasising variety and the individual voice, and by placing poems in their immediate contexts. The result is an eighteenth-century poetic scene that is dynamic, full of human energies, and responsive to all the significant developments of the age.