Description: The Cambridge Companion to British Poetry, 1945-2010 brings together sixteen essays that explore the full diversity of British poetry since the Second World War, a period of significant achievement in which varied styles and approaches have flourished. As a comprehensive critical, literary-historical and scholarly guide, this Companion offers not only new readings of a wide range of poets but a detailed account of the contexts in which their verse was written and received. Focusing on famous and neglected names alike, from Dylan Thomas to John Agard, leading scholars provide readers with insight into the ongoing importance and profundity of post-war poetry.
Brief description: Edward Larrissy is Emeritus Professor of Poetry at Queen's University Belfast. His published works include Reading Twentieth-Century Poetry: The Language of Gender and Objects, Yeats the Poet: The Measures of Difference, Blake and Modern Literature, and The Blind and Blindness in Literature of the Romantic Period.
Review Quotes: 'Examining poetry from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, and poetry written in postcolonial contexts, the essays, taken together, offer a comprehensive approach to a wide range of issues to which poets responded, including national identity, the 'movement, ' migration, feminism, gender, women's experience, postmodernism, and ecopoetics. ... In sum, this collection provides valuable insights into the full diversity and wide spectrum of British poetry.' Choice