Nineteenth-Century Poetry Criticism and Debates

This engaging volume provides readers with the essential criticism on nineteenth-century poetry, organised around key areas of debate in the field. The critical texts included in this volume reflect both a traditional and modern emphasis on the study of poetry in the long nineteenth century. These are then tied up by a newly written essay summarising the ideas and encouraging further study and debate. The book includes: sections on Periodization; ‘What is Poetry?’; Politics; Prosody; Forms; Emotion, feeling, affect; Religion; Sexuality; and Science work by writers such as William Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge, Percy Shelley, Christina Rossetti, Matthew Arnold and Gerard Manley Hopkins critics and historians including Isobel Armstrong, Richard Cronin, Jason Rudy, Joseph Bristow and Gillian Beer Detailed introductions and critical commentary by Francis O’Gorman, Rosie Miles, Stefano Evangelisto, Natalie Hoffman, Martin Dubois, Gregory Tate Providing both the essential criticism along with clear introductions and analysis, this book is the perfect guide to students who wish to engage in the exciting criticism and debates of nineteenth-century poetry.

Introduction, Emma Mason Part 1: Periodization Introduction, Francis O’Gorman 1. Preface to Poems, Matthew Arnold 2. Romanticism as a "Modern Tradition", Robert Langbaum 3. Poetry and its Times, Matthew Reynolds 4. Rhythm and Will, Matthew Campbell 5. E. C. Stedman and the Invention of Victorian Poetry, Michael C. Cohen Part 2: ‘What is poetry?’ Introduction, Rosie Miles 6. A Defence of Poetry, P. B. Shelley 7. What is poetry?, J. S. Mill 8. Introduction, Eric Griffiths 9. What kind of a critical category is "women’s poetry"?, Marion Thain 10. Female Picturesque and Colonial Settings in the Gift Books, Serena Baiesi Part 3: Politics Introduction, Ankhi Mukherjee 11. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Angela Leighton 12. Introduction, Isobel Armstrong 13. Introduction, Mike Sanders 14. Introduction, Matthew Bevis 15. Introduction, Mary Ellis Gibson Part 4: Prosody Introduction, Natalie Hoffman 16. XVIII: Language of Metrical Composition, S. T. Coleridge 17. English Metrical Law, Coventry Patmore 18. Investigation of Sound as Artistic Material, Sidney Lanier 19. Prosody Wars, Meredith Martin 20. Rhyme's End, Adela Pinch Part 5: Forms Introduction, Martin Dubois 21. Poetics, E. S. Dallas 22. Ancient or Modern, Ancient and Modern, J. R. Watson 23. Introduction, Herbert Tucker 24. The Sonnet and the Lyric Sequence, Joseph Phelan 25. The Divided Self and the Dramatic Monologue, Richard Cronin Part 6: Emotion, feeling, affect Introduction: Emma Mason 26. Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, William Wordsworth 27. Lecture 1, John Keble 28. The role and treatment of emotion in Victorian criticism of poetry, Isobel Armstrong 29. Coleridge to Wilde, Adam Potkay 30. Soul: Inside Hopkins, William Cohen Part 7: Religion Introduction: Jonathan Herapath 31. Tracts 80 and 87: On Reserve, Isaac Williams 32. The Face of the Deep, Christina Rossetti 33. Hopkins, J. Hillis Miller 34. Robert Browning’s Sacred and Legendary Art, Charles LaPorte 35. Introduction, Kirstie Blair Part 8: Sexuality Introduction, Stefano Evangelisto 36. The Poetry of Sorrow, Manley Hopkins 37. The Fleshly School of Poetry, Robert Buchanan 38. Sexual Inversion: Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Havelock Ellis 39. Wilde’s fatal effeminacy, Joseph Bristow 40. Introduction, Yopie Prins Part 9. Science Introduction, Gregory Tate 41. Science Versus Poetry, William Chambers and Robert Chambers 42. Thoughts on a Pebble, or a First Lesson in Geology, G. A. Mantell 43. Helmholtz, Tyndall, Gerard Manley Hopkins: Leaps of the Prepared Imagination, Gillian Beer 44. Introduction, Jason Rudy 45. Poetry and Science & Nature as Culture, Culture as Society, Ashton Nichols

Jonathan Herapath is College Chaplain and Tutor in English on the Sarah Lawrence Programme at Wadham College, Oxford, UK. Emma Mason is Professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick, UK.