This broad-ranging <i>Companion</i> gives readers a thorough grounding in both the background and the substance of eighteenth-century poetry in all its rich variety. <br><li>An up-to-date and wide-ranging guide to eighteenth-century poetry. <br><li>Reflects the dramatic transformation which has taken place in the study of eighteenth-century poetry over the past two decades. <br><li>Opens with a section on contexts, discussing poetry's relationships with patriotism, politics, science, and the visual arts, for example. <br><li>Discusses poetry by male and female poets from all walks of life. <br><li>Includes numerous close readings of individual poems, ranging from Pope's <i>The Rape of the Lock</i> to Mary Collier's <i>The Woman's Labour</i>. <br><li>Includes more provocative contributions on subjects such as rural poetry and the self-taught tradition, British poetry 'beyond the borders', the constructions of femininity, women as writers and women as readers. <br><li>Designed to be used alongside David Fairer and Christine Gerrard's <i>Eighteenth-century Poetry: An Annotated Anthology</i> (Blackwell Publishing, Second Edition, 2003). </li>