Poetic diction: A study of eighteenth century verse

The study examines eighteenth‑century poetic language, challenging reductive labels applied by later critics and tracing debates about a proper poetic diction. It analyzes theoretical arguments about purity and simplicity, surveys common stylistic features—stock diction, Latinisms, archaisms, compound epithets, personification and abstraction—and considers how poets balanced inherited tradition with contemporary tastes. Combining literary history with close linguistic analysis, it assesses where the period’s diction succeeds or fails and how those linguistic choices shaped continuities and reactions leading into the Romantic era.