This two-volume anthology celebrates four centuries of verse in English, from the Elizabethan era to the present day. The selection begins with the English Renaissance poet Edmund Spenser, and includes a substantial section of extracts from Shakespeare's plays and poetry. The progression from the metaphysical school (poets such as Donne and Marvell), the Augustans (Dryden and Pope), the Romantics such as Keats and Wordsworth, the Victorians such as...