The Metaphysical Poets (The Critics Debate)

The purpose of the series from which this book is taken is to help delineate various critical approaches to specific literary texts. Its authors are from a variety of critical schools and have approached their task in a flexible manner. Their aim is to help the readers come to terms with the variety of criticism and to introduce him or her to further reading on the subject and to a fuller evaluation of a particular text by illustrating the way it has been approached in a number of contexts. In the first part of the book a critical survey is given of some of the major ways the text has been appraised. This has been done sometimes in a thematic manner, sometimes according to various "schools" or "approaches". In the second part the authors provide their own appraisals of the text from their stated critical standpoint, allowing the reader the knowledge of their own particular approaches from which their views may in turn be evaluated. The series hopes to introduce and to elucidate criticism of authors and texts being studied and to encourage participation as the critics debate.