Poetry of Witness: The Tradition in English, 1500-2001

A companion volume to Against Forgetting, Poetry of Witness is the first anthology to reveal a tradition that runs through English-language poetry. The 300 poems collected here were composed at an extreme of human endurance--while their authors awaited execution, endured imprisonment, fought on the battlefield, or labored on the brink of breakdown or death. All bear witness to historical events and the irresistibility of their impact. Alongside Shakespeare, Milton, and Wordsworth, this volume includes such writers as Anne Askew, tortured and executed for her religious beliefs during the reign of Henry VIII; Phillis Wheatley, abducted by slave traders; Samuel Bamford, present at the Peterloo Massacre in 1819; William Blake, who witnessed the Gordon Riots of 1780; and Samuel Menashe, survivor of the Battle of the Bulge.

Poetry of Witness argues that such poets are a perennial feature of human history, and it presents the best of that tradition, proving that their work ranks alongside the greatest in the language.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 01/27/2014
ISBN: 9780393340426
Pages: 672
Weight: 2.00lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.10w x 1.50d

Review Citations: Library Journal Prepub Alert 08/01/2013 pg. 58
Library Journal 11/15/2013 pg. 94
Booklist 01/01/2014 pg. 36
Shelf Awareness 01/31/2014
Booklist Editors Choice/Adult 01/01/2015 pg. 9
Library Journal 08/01/2013