How to Read Middle English Poetry guides readers through poetry between 1150 and 1500, for study and pleasure. Chapters give down-to-earth advice on enjoying and analyzing each aspect of verse, from the choice of single words, through syntax, metre, rhyme, and stanza-design, up to the play of larger forms across whole poems.
How to Read Middle English Poetry covers major figures—such as Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, and Robert Henryson—but also delves into exciting anonymous lyrics, romances, and drama. It shows, too, how some modern poets have drawn on earlier poems, and how Middle English and early Scots provide crucial standpoints from which to think through present-day writing. References to accessible editions and electronic resources mean that the book needs no accompanying anthology.
At once thorough, wide-ranging, and practical, How to Read Middle English Poetry is indispensable for students exploring Middle English or early Scots, and for anyone curious about the heart of poetry's history. Readers can get 30% off the paperback or the hardback if they order through Oxford University Press with the code AAFLYG6.
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