Thomas Gray and William Collins, two of the 18th century's best known poets, continue to enjoy both a wide readership and critical respect. Besides his classic work, "Elegy in a Country Churchyard," Gray is known for the formal grace possessed by some poems, as well as the haunting romantic power of others while Collins is chiefly recognized for the odes which reveal his exceptional gift for delicate lyrical writing. In this edition of the poems of Gray and Collins, the text--which carefully retains the authors' original spelling and punctuation--has been completely revised and reset, and Gray's poems have been placed in chronological order of composition. In addition, the book features a critical introduction and explanatory head-note for each selection, chronologies of Gray and Collins, and a select bibliography.

A COMPANION TO & EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY POETRY A COMPANION TO & EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY POETRY Edited by Christine Gerrard This wide-ranging Companion reflects the dramatic transformation that has taken place in the study of eighteenth-century poetry over the past two decades. New essays by leading scholars in the field address an expanded poetic canon that now incorporates verse by many women poets and other formerly marginalized poetic voices. The volume engages with topical critical debates such as the production and consumption of literary texts, the constructions of femininity, sentiment and sensibility, enthusiasm, politics and aesthetics, and the growth of imperialism. The Companion opens with a section on contexts, considering eighteenth-century poetry’s relationships with such topics as party politics, religion, science, the visual arts, and the literary marketplace. A series of close readings of specific poems follows, ranging from familiar texts such as Pope’s The Rape of the Lock to slightly less well-known works such as Swift’s “Stella” poems and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s Town Eclogues. Essays on forms and genres, and a series of more provocative contributions on significant themes and debates, complete the volume. The Companion gives readers a thorough grounding in both the background and the substance of eighteenth-century poetry, and is designed to be used alongside David Fairer and Christine Gerrard’s Eighteenth-Century Poetry: An Annotated Anthology (3rd edition, 2014).