Q begins with Plato’s myth of Er and the Spindle of Necessity and goes on to ask what makes good verse outlive pyramids. Ranging across English poetry and drama, down to the cruder shocks of Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi, he distinguishes true imaginative idealising from a mere box of tricks, and argues for poetry’s place in ordinary life.
A compact, readable introduction from the Cambridge professor who edited The Oxford Book of English Verse. Download the free EPUB.