Reissued in response to demand, this definitive anthology of colonial American poetry is made available in a classroom edition, with annotatory emendations reflecting recent scholarship. The book presents 250 representative poems—fifty-nine printed here for the first time—accompanied by Professor Meserole's illuminating introduction, notes, glosses, comments, and catalogue of sources. The poets represented range from well-known writers such as Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor, and Michael Wigglesworth to personages not known primarily for their poetry—including Cotton Mather, Governor William Bradford, Roger Williams, and Captain John Smith—to the less famous such as schoolteacher Sarah Kemble Knight, lawyer Richard Chamberlain, and former indentured servant George Alsop. The poetry here offers a wide range of expression, including love lyrics, religious meditation, political satire, elegies, and personal narratives.

The first comprehensive and integrated critical survey of colonial American poetry, this book focuses on the New England Puritans, who produced the most notable poets, relating them contextually to writers of the Middle Atlantic and Southern colonies and to their European forebears. Following a general introduction by the editor, the book's three parts present: first, the social and aesthetic context in which the poets worked; second, the individual achievements of nine of the most successful poets; thin the varied forms the poets used sacred and profane, serious and humorous, formal and informal.

English devotional poets of 17c set in a wider European and Catholic context.

The first comprehensive study in English of one of the most important bodies of verse in European literature.

Presents a collection of critical essays about the works of John Donne and other metaphysical poets.

Redefines the great canon of American poetry from its origins in the 17th century right up to the present.