CONTENTS
Part I The 5th Century till the First Half of the 14th Century: The
Age of Anglo-Saxon Poetry and the Anglo-Norman Poetry
Chapter 1 The Anglo-Saxon Period (449-1066)......................................3
Beowulf......................................................................... 4
Chapter 2 The Anglo-Norman Period (1066–1350).............................. 15
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight............................................... 16
Part II The 14th Century: The Age of Geoffrey Chaucer
Chapter 3 Geoffrey Chaucer.............................................. 27
The Canterbury Tales........................................................ 29
Part III The 15th Century: The Age of Popular Ballads
Chapter 4 Popular Ballads................................................... 37
Robin Hood and Allin-a-Dale................................................. 38
Get Up and Bar the Door.................................................... 42
Sir Patrick Spens......................................................... 45
Part IV The 16th Century: The Age of Drama and Poetry
Introduction.............................................................. 51
Chapter 5 Thomas Wyatt.................................................. 54
I Find No Peace........................................................... 55
Chapter 6 Henry Howard.................................................... 57
The Soote Season.......................................................... 59
Chapter 7 Edmund Spenser.................................................. 61
Sonnet 34................................................................. 63
Sonnet 75................................................................. 64
Chapter 8 Walter Raleigh.................................................. 66
The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd...................................... 67
Chapter 9 Philip Sidney................................................... 69
Leave Me, O Love.......................................................... 70
Chapter 10 Francis Bacon................................................. 72
Of Studies............................................................... 73
Chapter 11 Christopher Marlowe......................................... 76
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love..................................... 77
Chapter 12 William Shakespeare....................................... 79
Hamlet.............................................................. 82
Sonnet 1.............................................................. 94
Sonnet 18............................................................. 95
Sonnet 29............................................................ 96
Chapter 13 Ben Jonson.............................................. 98
Song: To Celia.................................................... 99
Part V The 17th Century: Revolution, Restoration and New Poetic
Expression
Introduction..............................................103
Chapter 14 John Donne........................................106
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning..................................108
The Flea............................................................110
Song (Go and catch a falling star)................................112
Death, Be Not Proud.................................................114
Chapter 15 Robert Herrick.......................................115
To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time.............................116
Chapter 16 George Herbert...........................................118
Virtue..............................................................119
Chapter 17 John Milton.........................................121
Paradise Lost.....................................................123
On His Blindness................................................128
On His Deceased Wife..........................................129
Chapter 18 John Suckling and Richard Lovelace...........................130
Out upon It! Song (Why so pale and wan, fond lover)......................131
To Lucasta, Going to the Wars........................................132
Chapter 19 Andrew Marvell...............................................134
To His Coy Mistress..................................................135
Chapter 20 John Bunyan.......................................138
The Pilgrim’s Progress............................................139
Part VI The 18th Century: Enlightenment, Neo-classicism and Pre-romanticism
Introduction.....................................................147
Chapter 21 John Dryden.................................................152
A Song for St Cecilia’s Day............................................153
Chapter 22 Daniel Defoe..................................................157
Robinson Crusoe....................................................158
Chapter 23 Jonathan Swift.......................................165
Gulliver’s Travels.............................................166
A Modest Proposal...............................................174
Chapter 24 Joseph Addison and Richard Steele.........................182
Sir Roger at Church............................................185
Chapter 25 Alexander Pope......................................188
An Essay on Criticism.......................................190
Chapter 26 Henry Fielding.................................193
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling......................................195
Chapter 27 Thomas Gray..........................................................201
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.....................................202
Chapter 28 Oliver Goldsmith................................................208
The Vicar of Wakefield.................................................209
Chapter 29 Richard Brinsley Sheridan..................................214
The School for Scandal.............................................215
Chapter 30 William Blake.................................................227
London.............................................................229
The Tyger......................................................230
The Chimney Sweeper..............................................231
The Sick Rose......................................................232
Chapter 31 Robert Burns............................................233
My Heart’s in the Highlands...................................235
John Anderson, My Jo.............................................236
A Red, Red Rose..................................................237
Auld Lang Syne..................................................238
Mary Morison....................................................240
Scots, Wha Hae...............................................242
