Michael Bath

Tom Furniss

Reading Poetry offers a comprehensive and accessible guide to the art of reading poetry. Discussing more than 200 poems by more than 100 writers, ranging from ancient Greece and China to the twenty-first century, the book introduces readers to the skills and the critical and theoretical awareness that enable them to read poetry with enjoyment and insight. This third edition has been significantly updated in response to current developments in poetry and poetic criticism, and includes many new examples and exercises, new chapters on ‘world poetry’ and ‘eco-poetry’, and a greater emphasis throughout on American poetry, including the impact traditional Chinese poetry has had on modern American poetry. The seventeen carefully staged chapters constitute a complete apprenticeship in reading poetry, leading readers from specific features of form and figurative language to larger concerns with genre, intertextuality, Caribbean poetry, world poetry, and the role poetry can play in response to the ecological crisis. The workshop exercises at the end of each chapter, together with an extensive glossary of poetic and critical terms, and the number and range of poems analysed and discussed – 122 of which are quoted in full – make Reading Poetry suitable for individual study or as a comprehensive, self-contained textbook for university and college classes.

A Complete Coursebook

Reading Poetry

Traces the history of geological travel writing about Scotland across the historical periods of the Scottish Enlightenment and British Romanticism Discovering the Footsteps of Timeprobes the development of a distinctively Scottish tradition of geological travel writing from the seventeenth to early nineteenth century. The tradition tracks a fertile interaction of scientific and aesthetic themes, mediated through literary techniques, which highlights the emergence of 'Romanticism' as such; a distinctive, recognisable cultural movement of taste and style. Making an important new contribution to our understanding of the 'discovery' and representation of Scotland in the long eighteenth century, the book explores why Scotland's topography has been decisive in the history of geology to such a great extent. Written by a literary academic rather than a geologist, the book is as much concerned with textual strategies and the aesthetic experience of geological discovery as with geology itself. Key Features Adds to our understanding of the 'discovery of Scotland' in the 18th and early 19th century, developing a new account of the literary, aesthetic and geological meanings of 'the land of mountain and flood' in the period Offers new insights about James Hutton's geological theory by attending to his geological travel writing about Scotland, and also locates Hutton's work within wider geological debates in and about Scotland Builds on previous work on the literariness of scientific writing in the 'second scientific revolution' Contributes to research on 'Romantic Scotland' and on the transition from Enlightenment to Romantic scientific travel writing

Geological Travel Writing about Scotland, 1700-1820

Discovering the Footsteps of Time

Reading Poetry offers a comprehensive and accessible guide to the art of reading poetry. Successive chapters introduce key skills and critical or theoretical issues, enabling users to read poetry with enjoyment, insight and an awareness of the implications of what they are doing. This new edition includes a new chapter on ‘Post-colonial Poetry’, a substantial increase in the number of end-of-chapter interactive exercises, and a comprehensive Glossary of poetic terms. Not just an add-on, the Glossary works as a key resource for the structuring of particular topics in any individual teaching or learning programme. Many of the exercises and interactive discussions develop not only the skills of competent close reading but also the necessary confidence and experience in locating historical and other contextual information through library or internet searches. The aim is to enhance readers' literary and scholarly competence – and to make it fun!

An Introduction

Nigel Fabb

Alan Durant

Sara Mills

Martin Montgomery

First Published in 2006. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Tom Furniss

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