Poetry and the Creation of a Whig Literary Culture 1681-1714

Presenting a history of early eighteenth-century poetry, this book shows that the Whig writers attacked as hacks and dunces by Alexander Pope and John Dryden were in fact successful and popular in their own time. It maps the evolution of this distinct poetic tradition, offering insights into the relationship between literary and political culture.

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Poetry and the Creation of a Whig Literary Culture offers a new perspective on early eighteenth century poetry and literary culture, arguing that long-neglected Whig poets such as Joseph Addison, John Dennis, Thomas Tickell, and Richard Blackmore were more popular and successful in their own time than they have been since. These and other Whig writers produced elevated poetry celebrating the political and military achievements of William III's Britain, and were committed to an ambitious project to create a distinctively Whiggish English literary culture after the Revolution of 1688. Far from being the penniless hacks and dunces satirized by John Dryden and the Scriblerians, they were supported by the patronage of the wealthy Whig aristocracy, and their works promoted as a new English literature to rival that of classical Greece and Rome. Poetry and the Creation of a Whig Literary Culture maps for the first time the evolution of an alternative early eighteenth-century poetic tradition which is central to our understanding of the literary history of the period.