Tom Furniss

Reading Poetry offers a comprehensive and accessible guide to the art of reading poetry. Discussing more than 200 poems by more than 100 writers, ranging from ancient Greece and China to the twenty-first century, the book introduces readers to the skills and the critical and theoretical awareness that enable them to read poetry with enjoyment and insight. This third edition has been significantly updated in response to current developments in poetry and poetic criticism, and includes many new examples and exercises, new chapters on ‘world poetry’ and ‘eco-poetry’, and a greater emphasis throughout on American poetry, including the impact traditional Chinese poetry has had on modern American poetry. The seventeen carefully staged chapters constitute a complete apprenticeship in reading poetry, leading readers from specific features of form and figurative language to larger concerns with genre, intertextuality, Caribbean poetry, world poetry, and the role poetry can play in response to the ecological crisis. The workshop exercises at the end of each chapter, together with an extensive glossary of poetic and critical terms, and the number and range of poems analysed and discussed – 122 of which are quoted in full – make Reading Poetry suitable for individual study or as a comprehensive, self-contained textbook for university and college classes.

Reading Poetry offers a comprehensive and accessible guide to the art of reading poetry. Discussing more than 200 poems by more than 100 writers, ranging from ancient Greece and China to the twenty-first century, the book introduces readers to the skills and the critical and theoretical awareness that enable them to read poetry with enjoyment and insight. This third edition has been significantly updated in response to current developments in poetry and poetic criticism, and includes many new examples and exercises, new chapters on ‘world poetry’ and ‘eco-poetry’, and a greater emphasis throughout on American poetry, including the impact traditional Chinese poetry has had on modern American poetry. The seventeen carefully staged chapters constitute a complete apprenticeship in reading poetry, leading readers from specific features of form and figurative language to larger concerns with genre, intertextuality, Caribbean poetry, world poetry, and the role poetry can play in response to the ecological crisis. The workshop exercises at the end of each chapter, together with an extensive glossary of poetic and critical terms, and the number and range of poems analysed and discussed – 122 of which are quoted in full – make Reading Poetry suitable for individual study or as a comprehensive, self-contained textbook for university and college classes.

Traces the history of geological travel writing about Scotland across the historical periods of the Scottish Enlightenment and British RomanticismDiscovering the Footsteps of Time probes the development of a distinctively Scottish tradition of geological travel writing from the seventeenth to early nineteenth century. The tradition tracks a fertile interaction of scientific and aesthetic themes, mediated through literary techniques, which highlights the emergence of 'Romanticism' as such; a distinctive, recognisable cultural movement of taste and style. Making an important new contribution to our understanding of the 'discovery' and representation of Scotland in the long eighteenth century, the book explores why Scotland's topography has been decisive in the history of geology to such a great extent. Written by a literary academic rather than a geologist, the book is as much concerned with textual strategies and the aesthetic experience of geological discovery as with geology itself.Key FeaturesAdds to our understanding of the 'discovery of Scotland' in the 18th and early19th century, developing a new account of the literary, aesthetic and geological meanings of 'the land of mountain and flood' in the period Offers new insights about James Hutton's geological theory by attending to his geological travel writing about Scotland, and also locates Hutton's work within wider geological debates in and about ScotlandBuilds on previous work on the literariness of scientific writing in the 'second scientific revolution'Contributes to research on 'Romantic Scotland' and on the transition from Enlightenment to Romantic scientific travel writing

Doomed Spanish poet Federico Lorca, ill-fated Tudor battleship the Mary Rose, a Ming dynasty porcelain flask, a sawing horse: in a collection spanning almost 40 years, Tom Furniss's poetry ranges far and wide, forging connections between past and present, sculpting fresh images from the global and historical, and from the domestic and mundane. Several early poems, such as Chameleon and Break of Day, distil complex ideas into sharp, elliptical verse. Others are lyrical, expansive and digressive. Some are playful or political, or both. More recent poems, some inspired by memories of a Northamptonshire childhood, others by the joys of late fatherhood, display a muscular simplicity. Here and there are echoes of Wordsworth and Shelley, Bob Dylan and The Beatles, the writer's first loves and avowed early influences. But each poem is deeply personal and individual. They ring true with an authentic voice.

Traces the history of geological travel writing about Scotland across the historical periods of the Scottish Enlightenment and British Romanticism'Discovering the Footsteps of Time' probes the development of a distinctively Scottish tradition of geological travel writing from the seventeenth to early nineteenth century. The tradition tracks a fertile interaction of scientific and aesthetic themes, mediated through literary techniques, which highlights the emergence of 'Romanticism' as such; a distinctive, recognisable cultural movement of taste and style. Making an important new contribution to our understanding of the 'discovery' and representation of Scotland in the long eighteenth century, the book explores why Scotland's topography has been decisive in the history of geology to such a great extent. Written by a literary academic rather than a geologist, the book is as much concerned with textual strategies and the aesthetic experience of geological discovery as with geology itself.Key FeaturesAdds to our understanding of the 'discovery of Scotland' in the 18th and early 19th century, developing a new account of the literary, aesthetic and geological meanings of 'the land of mountain and flood' in the periodOffers new insights about James Hutton's geological theory by attending to his geological travel writing about Scotland, and also locates Hutton's work within wider geological debates in and about ScotlandBuilds on previous work on the literariness of scientific writing in the 'second scientific revolution'Contributes to research on 'Romantic Scotland' and on the transition from Enlightenment to Romantic scientific travel writing

Ways of Reading is a best-selling textbook for undergraduate students of English Language and English Literature, providing readers with the tools to analyse and interpret the meanings of literary and non-literary texts. Six sections, comprising twenty five self-contained units, cover: techniques of analysis and problem-solving language variation attributing meaning poetic uses of language narrative drama and performance texts The book combines the linguistic and literary background to each topic with discussion of examples from books, poems, magazines and online sources, and links those examples to follow-up practical activities and a list of titles for further reading. This fourth edition has been redesigned and updated throughout, with many fresh examples and exercises. Further reading suggestions have been brought up to date and new material on electronic sources and the Internet has been integrated. Ways of Reading continues to be the core resource for students of English Language and Literature.

Ways of Reading is a best-selling textbook for undergraduate students of English Language and English Literature, providing readers with the tools to analyse and interpret the meanings of literary and non-literary texts. Six sections, comprising twenty five self-contained units, cover: techniques of analysis and problem-solving language variation attributing meaning poetic uses of language narrative drama and performance texts The book combines the linguistic and literary background to each topic with discussion of examples from books, poems, magazines and online sources, and links those examples to follow-up practical activities and a list of titles for further reading. This fourth edition has been redesigned and updated throughout, with many fresh examples and exercises. Further reading suggestions have been brought up to date and new material on electronic sources and the Internet has been integrated. Ways of Reading continues to be the core resource for students of English Language and Literature.

This study develops a detailed reading of the interrelations between aesthetics, ideology, language, gender and political economy in two highly influential works by Edmund Burke: his Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful (1757), and the Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790). Tom Furniss's close attention to the rhetorical labyrinths of these texts is combined with an attempt to locate them within the larger discursive networks of the period, including texts by Locke, Hume and Smith. This process reveals that Burke's contradictions and inconsistencies are symptomatic of a strenuous engagement with the ideological problems endemic to the period. Burke's dilemma in this respect makes the Reflections an audacious compromise which simultaneously defends the ancien régime, contributes towards the articulation of radical thought, and makes possible the revolution which we call English Romanticism.