Lives of the Poets

Author / Editor
Schmidt, Michael

Title
Lives of the Poets

Published
New York: Knopf, 1999.

Physical Description
xii, 975.

Description
A history of international English poetry, with recurrent attention to the history of the language, verse forms and style, political contours, and the anxieties of influence. The structure is chronological until the twentieth century, when Schmidt turns to nationality and poetic movements as devices of organization. The index lists many references to Chaucer, while pp. 30-74 concentrate on the relative importance of John Gower, William Langland, and Chaucer.

Chaucer Subjects
Style and Versification
Language and Word Studies
Chaucer's Influence and Later Allusion
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations