The seventeenth century saw some of the great achievements in the English language. Milton wrote Paradise Lost, Donne composed his Metaphysical verse, and Shakespeare his late Romances, not to mention the work of Dryden, Marvell, Jonson, and many others. Now, this remarkable quantity of extraordinary literature has been brought together in one large volume, The New Oxford Book of Seventeenth-Century Verse. Like the previous edition, all of the best known works are present, but this new edition also responds to considerable changes in scholarship and perspective in recent years. Popular and minor poets take a place alongside their more well known peers. Alastair Fowler, the collection's distinguished editor, has also included a generous portion of poetry by women (virtually for the first time), as well as a sampling of American colonial verse. In responding to new demands for inclusiveness, in striking a balance between Metaphysical and Jonsonian poetry, and in preserving the already recognized canonical works, The New Oxford Book of Seventeenth-Century Verse will be recognized as the finest collection of poetry from a century of exceptionally fine literature.… (more)