Six Centuries of English Poetry: Tennyson to Chaucer

Six centuries of English verse, from the 14th to the 19th century. James Baldwin's anthology traces the evolution of a literary tradition, Chaucer's medieval music giving way to Wordsworth's Romantic rebellion, culminating in Tennyson's Victorian refinement. This is poetry as argument, each era claiming the language for its own purposes. The annotations and historical context Baldwin provides illuminate not just what these poems say, but the world that shaped them. For the reader who wants to understand English poetry as a living conversation across centuries, this collection holds six hundred years of the finest voices in one volume.