Poetical Works of John Dryden, Volume 1

John Dryden sits at the fountainhead of English literary greatness. As the first Poet Laureate of England and the defining voice of the Restoration, he forged a poetry of extraordinary range: witty, vicious, philosophically restless, and unafraid of controversy. This volume gathers his major works, from the allegorical splendor of 'The Hind and the Panther', a daring religious polemic dressed in beast fable, to 'Mac Flecknoe,' the savage lampoon that invented a genre of satirical cruelty so precise it still stings three centuries later. 'Annus Mirabilis' chronicles the miraculous year of 1666 in formal verse: the Great Fire of London and England's naval triumph rendered in heroic couplets that crackle with controlled fury. Here too are panegyrics to royalty, translations that shaped the English language, and satires that drew blood in a court where wit was warfare. For readers who think they don't like 17th-century poetry, Dryden is the gateway: his energy, his cleverness, his sheer verbal ambition remain startlingly alive.