Lectures on the English Poets; Delivered at the Surrey Institution

A series of lectures examines the nature and practice of English poetry, beginning with a general definition of poetry as the language of imagination and passion and proceeding to close readings of individual poets from Chaucer and Spenser through Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden, Pope, Thomson, Cowper, Swift, Young, Gray, Collins, Burns, the old ballads, and contemporary writers. Each lecture analyzes poetic subject-matter, form, sound, and emotional effect, offering textual examples and judgments on diction, imagery, and moral feeling. Emphasis falls on poetry's rootedness in nature, its capacity for vivid pathos and simplicity, and the critic's role in clarifying poetic power and human feeling.