Full Description
Edmund Waller (1606-1687): New Perspectives reappraises the life and works of an important but neglected seventeenth-century English poet. Admired at court in the 1630s and at the Restoration, Waller made a deep impression on contemporary poetry: his collection of Poems (1645) was widely acclaimed and had an 'extraordinary impact' on future poets. The book investigates, among other things, Waller's political views on affairs of state, his social and literary interactions with younger poets, his friendship with John Evelyn while in exile, his technical poetic innovations, his rivalry with Andrew Marvell, his elegies, and his contemporary and posthumous reputation.
Contributors: Warren Chernaik, Daniel Cook, Stephen Deng, Martin Dzelzainis, Richard Hillyer, Philip Major, Michael P. Parker, Tessie Prakas, Geoffrey Smith, Thomas Ward, and Gillian Wright.
Contents
Acknowledgements
List of Figures
Abbreviations
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
Philip Major
1 'Power Unbounded and a Will Confined': Waller's Politics
Warren Chernaik
2 Banished from the 'frantic isle': Edmund Waller in Exile
Geoffrey Smith
3 Waller, Marvell, and 'La Belle Stuart' Reconsidered
Martin Dzelzainis
4 '... and Musick too': Edmund Waller on the Pages of Ayres and Dialogues (1653)
Thomas Ward
5 'We Plough the Deep, and Reap What Others Sow': Waller's Panegyrick and the Empire of Trade
Stephen Deng
6 '... like Orpheus, with My Numerous Moan': Wit by Association in Waller's 1645 Poems
Tessie Prakas
7 'Such Huge Extremes': Waller, Denham and the Emergence of Neoclassical Distichs
Richard Hillyer
8 Waller's Elegies
Daniel Cook
9 In Praise of Mr. Waller
Gillian Wright
10 Waller and the Wits: Poetry, Reputation, and Generational Conflict at the Court of Charles II
Michael P. Parker
Index
