Description
Book SynopsisThis anthology presents a selection of poetry from Wales written in English in the years following the French Revolution of 1789. Arranged chronologically, it brings together a wide selection of little-known texts, some of which are published here for the first time. A comprehensive introduction sets the poems in their cultural and historical contexts, while detailed endnotes give concise biographies of the writers—where known—and explain specific references within the texts.
Trade ReviewElizabeth Edwards has recuperated texts from archival and scarce print sources with meticulous scholarship, introduced them with a well-informed and illustrated survey of Anglophone poetry concerning Wales in this period, and provided full biographical and explanatory notes to stimulate further research on the subject. Edwards's path-breaking English-Language Poetry from Wales is the first ever such anthology to be published, and provides a unique insight into the literary past. Professor Caroline Franklin, Director at the Centre for Research into Gender, Culture and Society Edwards' English-Language Poetry from Wales, 1789 - 1806 is a seminal intervention. It redresses the cultural and critical 'forgetting' that has rendered more-or-less invisible the array of anglophone Welsh responses to the French Revolution and to its dramatic European fallout. A range of texts, both representative and distinctive, demonstrates the impact of the changing political climate and of total war on literary culture. What emerges is a sharp sense of the energy with which poets engaged with the full spectrum of ideological debate. From apocalyptic visions and calls-to-arms to layered topographies and mordant political sketches, Edwards' volume reveals the pressures of revolution not only on political allegiances and cultural identities, but, dramatically, on day-to-day living. Professor Damian Walford Davies, Aberystwyth University
Table of ContentsIntroduction Texts Editorial Principles Notes to the Texts
