Companion to British Poetry Before 1600

The first volume in a four-volume set on British poetry includes English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish poetry before 1600. For this volume, editor Sauer has chosen the poems and poets who are most often included in the major anthologies of literature and the most used high-school textbooks. This means students will find analysis of Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales, The Faerie Queene, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Shakespeare’s sonnets in one place. The 600 A–Z entries cover poets, poems, themes, terms, and historical events. Appendixes contain a glossary of literary terms and a bibliography. All articles are signed and include see also references and lists of further readings in journals and books. Entries range in length from a few paragraphs to 43 pages for Shakespeare’s sonnets. The entries on poems give an overview of the text, a discussion of the style, the historical context, and the most common interpretations of the poem.  The covered poets include not only the greats but also lesser-known but important poets, such as Bede and Dafydd ap Gwilym, along with many anonymous poets. Also included are some influential non-British poets, such as Ovid and Boccaccio. Important historical personages, such as Alfred the Great and Queen Elizabeth I, are treated in entries that explain their impact on writers of the time. Thematic entries provide background information for such topics as Arthurian literature, Peasants’ revolt, and Welsh women poets. Literary terms (e.g., Ballade, Octave) are explained in simple terms. In jargon-free language, this volume brings together a great deal of information that will be helpful to literature students. The analysis of poems will help them understand these early works, while the historical, biographical, and literary information will be useful in research. Gale’s series Poetry for Students has a much longer analysis of individual poems, but students would have to go through 30 volumes to find the poem they need, and the ongoing set is much more expensive.







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