Gothic verse liberated the dark side of Romantic and Victorian verse: its medievalism, melancholy and morbidity. Some poets intended merely to shock or entertain, but Gothic also liberated the creative imagination and inspired them to enter disturbing areas of the psyche and to portray extreme states of human consciousness. This anthology illustrates that journey.

This is the first modern anthology of Gothic verse. It traces the rise of Gothic in the late eighteenth century and follows its footsteps through the nineteenth century. Gothic has never truly died as it constantly reinvents itself, and this lively, illustrated and annotated anthology offers students the atmospheric poetry that originally studded terror novels and inspired horror films. Alongside canonical verse by Coleridge, Keats and Poe, it introduces readers to lesser-known authors' excursions into the macabre and the grotesque. A wide range of poetic forms is included: as well as ballads, tales, lyrics, meditative odes and dramatic monologues, a medievalist romance by Scott and Gothic drama by Byron are also included in full.

A substantial introduction by Caroline Franklin puts the rise of Gothic poetry into its historical context, relating it both to Romanticism and Enlightenment historicism. Although Gothic fiction has now been receiving serious critical attention for twenty years, Gothic verse has been largely overlooked. It is therefore hoped that this anthology will stimulate scholarly interest as well as readers' pleasure in these unearthly poems.

Gothic Literature has never been as popular as it is today, both in academia (as a dark, seductive extension of Romanticism) and the general market (as the starting point for all that we call fantasy). This is the first anthology specifically devoted to Gothic Poetry.

About the Author
Caroline Franklin is Professor of English at the University of Swansea. Widely published in the field of Romantic and Gothic studies, she is one of the world's leading expert on Gothic Literature.

Reviews

"A landmark publication in the field of both Gothic and Romantic scholarship, Franklin's The Longman Anthology of Gothic Verse is bound fundamentally to shift and alter the way we teach, and critically conceptualise, the poetry and prose of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries."

- BARS Bulletin & Review

Book Information
ISBN 9781405899314
Author Caroline Franklin
Format Paperback
Page Count 616
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 1140g