Selected Poems (Oxford World's Classics) - Softcover

Rochester, John Wilmot Earl Of

Softcover

ISBN 10: 019958432X ISBN 13: 9780199584321

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2013

Synopsis

"If I by miracle can be
This livelong minute true to thee
'Tis all that heav'n allows."

The Earl of Rochester was England's first celebrity poet, a man who epitomized the theatricality, licentiousness, and skepticism of the Restoration age. But his scandalous reputation belies the variety and sophistication of his work: his love poems set new standards not only for sexual explicitness but also for psychological acuity and lyric grace, while his satires broke new ground as much by the refinement of their ironies as by the brutality of their invective.

A fascinatingly contradictory figure, Rochester emerges more clearly than ever from this new edition, the first selection of his work in modern spelling to take account of recent revolutionary advances in textual scholarship. It includes only poems now securely attributed to the poet, in texts based not on the posthumous and unreliable printed editions but on the most authoritative manuscripts which circulated in his lifetime.

Paul Davis's superb Introduction places Rochester within the larger intellectual movement of libertinism, and his notes help readers unfamiliar with Restoration usage to catch the subtler connotations of words and phrases. Of particular interest, Davis includes in the notes the texts of the poems that Rochester translated and imitated, illuminating Rochester's creatively intricate involvement with the work of his ancient and modern counterparts, a crucial aspect of his poetic genius.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

About this title

About the Author

Paul Davis is the author of Translation and the Poet's Life: the Ethics of Translating in English Culture, 1646-1726 (OUP, 2008).

Review

"A rich and stimulating exploration of the implications of Milton's study of the Ovidian tradition for the substance and ambitions of his verse as a whole ... a suggestive general model of some of the ways in which poetry of the past is constantly given new life in the present."--Notes and Queries

"An intricate, thought-provoking study, rich with detail and numerous flashes of brilliant insight. ... [The author's] lively and engaging manner ensures that both students and scholars alike will find her book a pleasure to read. This fine study is a major achievement and a significant contribution both to Milton criticism and to the history of the reception of Ovid, one that opens up many promising avenues for further exploration."--The Classical Review

"Every chapter in Kilgour's book offers something valuable, and the whole is richly informative and thought-provoking."--Milton Quarterly

"A fine study of Milton and Ovid ... a skilfully woven work of criticism without a thread awry in its scholarly fabric."--Erick Ramalho, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"A major achievement ... as timely as other creative reinterpretations of Ovid today, and, though a scholarly work, belongs to the same rich field of our own transformations and interpretations of Ovid."--Goran Stanivukovic, Review of English Studies

"Many will welcome [the author's] occasional interjections of dry humor. Scholars of both classical and early modern literature and advanced graduate students should find this book essential to study of Milton's relationship to Ovid and other writers of antiquity."--Renaissance Quarterly

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 019958432X
• ISBN 13: 9780199584321
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 192
• Editor: Davis Paul