Reading Time in the Long Poem

Tess Somervell is Lecturer in English at Worcester College, University of Oxford. She completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge, then held a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Leeds. She has published widely on the poetry and culture of the period 1660-1850.

• AcknowledgementsAbbreviationsIntroductionI MILTON1 His Prospect High: The Nunc Stans in Paradise Lost 2 More Than Delphic: Miltonic History and Hermeneutics 3 A Full-Grown Beauty: Reading Paradise Lost II THOMSON4 Shade Softening into Shade: Georgic Causation in The Seasons 5 The Broken Scene: Thomson’s Tales 6 Unforced Method: Reading The Seasons III WORDSWORTH7 Years Flowed In Between: Chronos and Kairos in The Prelude 8 Hung O’er the Deep: Wordsworth’s Allusions and Revisions 9 A Feeling of the Whole: Reading The Prelude Conclusion Bibliography

A fascinating study of how long poems map themselves out through time and space and use landscapes to think about temporality. Somervell’s multidimensional readings bring Paradise Lost, The Seasons and The Prelude into lively dialogue, enriching our understanding at every turn and reconfiguring the literary history of the period.