Poetry and Politics

It can be argued that poetry and politics have much in common. Both are fuelled by a sense of necessity, even urgency. Both appeal to the imagination, to the sense that things could be otherwise. Poetry can be used to praise or criticise a society; political approaches can be fruitfully applied to creative writing. Both are concerned with values, with rights, with ideas of boundaries and nationhood. This varied collection of essays looks at the relationship between poetry and politics from the late Renaissance to the present day. Subjects covered include John Tolland's revolutionary poem Clito; the trope of trade winds as used by Milton and Shelley; Queen Victoria's role in women's poetry; and socialist content and potential in Ivor Gurney and Edgell Rickword. The final contribution interrogates the pairing of `poetry and politics'. Dr KATE FLINT teaches in the Faculty of English, University of Oxford. Contributors: NIGEL SMITH, TIMOTHY MORTON, HELEN GROTH,LOUISE HUDD, JOHN LUCAS, CLAIR WILLS, ROBERT SMITH