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‘Wit’s Wild Dancing Light’: Reading the Poems of Alexander Pope - cover image

Copyright

William Hutchings

Published On

2023-12-19

ISBN

Paperback978-1-80064-300-0
Hardback978-1-80064-301-7
PDF978-1-80064-413-7
HTML978-1-80064-673-5
EPUB978-1-80064-414-4

Language

  • English

Print Length

312 pages (vi+306)

Dimensions

Paperback156 x 22 x 234 mm(6.14" x 0.87" x 9.21")
Hardback156 x 26 x 234 mm(6.14" x 1.02" x 9.21")

Weight

Paperback444g (15.66oz)
Hardback619g (21.83oz)

OCLC Number

1415825327

LCCN

2023512117

THEMA

  • DSC
  • JNU
  • DS
  • DNL

BIC

  • DSA
  • JNU
  • DNF
  • DSBF

BISAC

  • LIT014000
  • POE005020
  • LIT004120

LCC

  • PR3634

Keywords

  • Alexander Pope
  • Eighteenth-century English poetry
  • Chronological reading
  • Critical appraisal
  • Age of Enlightenment

‘Wit’s Wild Dancing Light’

Reading the Poems of Alexander Pope

  • William Hutchings (author)
The book is a chronological reading of Alexander Pope’s poems, from the Pastorals (1709) to the four-book Dunciad (1743). Each of the 26 chapters forming the volume selects examples for detailed scrutiny, demonstrating how close reading can generate understanding of a whole poem and how critical appraisal can build into a creative survey of an entire poetic career. The book’s approach is intended to be both scholarly and accessible and 'Wit's Wild Dancing Light' will be of interest to scholars, students and anybody interested in Pope’s masterful poetry.

Endorsements

'Wit's Wild Dancing Light' acts as a highly useful entry point for readers who are encountering Pope for the first time and also contains much illuminating material for those who are already familiar with his poetry.

Dr Ian Calvert

University of Bristol

Reviews

Undergraduates will find much in this volume that is useful and suggestive, conveyed with infectious enthusiasm.

D. L. Patey

CHOICE connect, vol. 62 , no. 1, 2024.

Contents

Introduction

(pp. 5–20)
  • William Hutchings

1. Pastorals

(pp. 21–34)
  • William Hutchings

2. Sappho to Phaon

(pp. 35–38)
  • William Hutchings
  • William Hutchings

4. Windsor Forest

(pp. 53–58)
  • William Hutchings
  • William Hutchings
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9. Homer, The Iliad

(pp. 99–112)
  • William Hutchings

11. An Essay on Man

(pp. 121–144)
  • William Hutchings
  • William Hutchings
  • William Hutchings
  • William Hutchings

26. The Dunciad

(pp. 267–292)
  • William Hutchings

Contributors

William Hutchings

(author)
Honorary Research Fellow at University of Manchester

William Hutchings was formerly Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Director of the Centre for Excellence in Enquiry-Based Learning at the University of Manchester, UK and he is presently Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures at that university. He now lectures regularly to public groups locally and nationally. He has a wealth of teaching experience on English Literature courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level, and is the editor of Andrew Marvell: Selected Poems, the author of The Poetry of William Cowper, and Literary Criticism: A Practical Guide for Students.