This engaging volume provides readers with the essential criticism on nineteenth-century poetry, organised around key areas of debate in the field. The critical texts included in this volume reflect both a traditional and modern emphasis on the study of poetry in the long nineteenth century. These are then tied up by a newly written essay summarising the ideas and encouraging further study and debate.

The book includes:

• sections on Periodization; ‘What is Poetry?’; Politics; Prosody; Forms; Emotion, feeling, affect; Religion; Sexuality; and Science
• work by writers such as William Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge, Percy Shelley, Christina Rossetti, Matthew Arnold and Gerard Manley Hopkins
• critics and historians including Isobel Armstrong, Richard Cronin, Jason Rudy, Joseph Bristow and Gillian Beer
• Detailed introductions and critical commentary by Francis O’Gorman, Rosie Miles, Stefano Evangelisto, Natalie Hoffman, Martin Dubois, Gregory Tate

Providing both the essential criticism along with clear introductions and analysis, this book is the perfect guide to students who wish to engage in the exciting criticism and debates of nineteenth-century poetry.