Poetry

Presents alphabetized profiles of nearly seven hundred significant poets from around the world, providing biographies, primary and secondary bibliographies, and analysis of their works.

Consists chiefly of subject entries, "defining the classical myths or stories attached to the characters or event" and citing original sources. Also includes "Index of poets, poems and references."

Miller Williams’ Patterns of Poetry is an encyclopedia of the forms used by poets throughout the history of English, from blank verse to hymnal measure, from englyn penfyr to the double dactyl, from the clerihew to the sonnet. Each form is introduced with a brief discussion of its origin, which is followed by a graphic presentation of its scansion, metrics, and rhyme scheme. Sample poems show how each form actually works. Williams begins Patterns of Poetry with an introduction entitled “Form and the Age,” in which he traces the history of form in the arts and the ways in which any form relates to the political, social, and religious temper of the period in which it becomes dominant. He then prefaces the main text with useful notes on rhyme, prosodic symbols, the major feet, metrics, and nonce forms. Also included in the book are a glossary; a bibliography; a listing of additional poems in the various patterns (poems not included in the text but of great use to teachers); an essay on the line as the prosodic unit; and an index.

With contributions from over 100 scholars, this encyclopedia provides essays on the careers, works, and backgrounds of more than 100 nineteenth-century poets. It also provides entries on specialized categories of twentieth-century verse such as hymns, folk ballads, spirituals, Civil War songs, and Native American poetry. Besides presenting essential factual information, each entry amounts to an in-depth critical essay, and includes a bibliography that directs readers to other works by and about a particular poet.

Contains over 400 entries that treat a broad range of individual poets and poems, along with many articles devoted to topics, schools, or periods of American verse in the century. Entries fall into three main categories: poet entries, which provide biographical and cultural contexts for the author's career; entries on individual works, which offer closer explication of the most resonant poems in the 20th-century canon; and topical entries, which offer analyses of a given period of literary production, school, thematically constructed category, or other verse tradition that historically has been in dialogue with the poetry of the United States.

Provides the most comprehensive and authoritative reference for students, scholars, and poets on all aspects of its subject including history, movements, genres, prosody, rhetorical devices, and critical terms. This edition reflects recent changes in literary and cultural studies, providing up-to-date coverage and giving greater attention to the international aspects of poetry.

Encyclopedia covers aspects of literature and society in Elizabethan England.

Provides information on the lives and works of classic poets. Entries include biographical information, critical analysis, and bibliographies of key primary and secondary works.