A volume of specially commissioned essays, analysing major premises, preoccupations, and practices of a wide range of English poets writing from the 1700s to the 1790s This volume analyzes major premises, preoccupations, and practices of English poets writing from 1700 to the 1790s. Specially-commissioned essays, supported by guides to further reading, avoid familiar categories and single-author approaches to look at the century afresh, exploring such large poetic themes as nature, the city, politics, gender and dreams. List of illustrations xi Notes on contributors xii Chronology xiv Introduction: the future of eighteenth-century poetry 1(10) John Sitter Couplets and conversation 11(26) J. Paul Hunter Political passions 37(26) Christine Gerrard Publishing and reading poetry 63(20) Barbara M. Benedict The city in eighteenth-century poetry 83(26) Brean Hammond ``Nature'' poetry 109(24) Tim Fulford Questions in poetics: why and how poetry matters 133(24) John Sitter Eighteenth-century women poets and readers 157(20) Claudia Thomas Kairoff Creating a national poetry: the tradition of Spenser and Milton 177(26) David Fairer The return to the ode 203(22) Ralph Cohen A poetry of absence 225(24) David B. Morris The poetry of Sensibility 249(22) Patricia Meyer Spacks ``Pre-Romanticism'' and the ends of eighteenth-century poetry 271(20) Jennifer Keith Index 291