Manchester University Press Spenser and Donne: Thinking Poets (The Manchester Spenser)

Early modern poets Edmund Spenser and John Donne are typically viewed in terms of contrasts, and are rarely analysed together as an isolated pair. This collection of essays brings together leading Spenser and Donne scholars to challenge the traditionally dichotomous view of the two poets and to engage critically with both, not only at the sites of direct allusion, imitation, or parody, but also in terms of common preoccupations and continuities of thought. Considering the authors as ‘thinking poets’, the essays do not merely compare what Spenser and Donne thought about certain subjects, such as contemporary events and politics, science, philosophy, love, marriage, and religious devotion. Rather, they explore and meditate on how these poets thought: how they directed their rhetorical and figurative processes, how they crafted their verses, their authorial personae, and their literary careers, and how they navigated the rich intellectual landscape available to them of literary conventions, innovations, and influences both ancient and modern. The volume breaks new ground to address a critical gap in scholarship and illuminates new directions in the studies of two canonical poets at a pivotal point in literary history. With essays by distinguished scholars, including Patrick Cheney, Linda Gregerson, Elizabeth D. Harvey, Anne Lake Prescott, and Ramie Targoff, this collection will prove a valuable resource to scholars, students and libraries.