Choice 评论

This volume continues the expansion of J.M. Kuntz and N.C. Martinez's Poetry Explication (3rd ed., CH, May '81), a standard checklist of criticisms of individual poems. A two-volume Guide to American Poetry Explication has already appeared (CH, May '90); this is the first of four volumes for British poetry. Volumes on the Renaissance, Restoration through Victorian, and modern through contemporary periods are planned to follow. Nearly 4,500 English-language explications of Old English and Medieval poems are cited in this volume, compared with only 384 in the third edition. Criticisms of poems of more than 500 lines (e.g., Beowulf, Piers Plowman, the Canterbury Tales) and those published in books about single authors or in collections surveying periods or several poets, both omitted from earlier editions, are now included. This expanded coverage permits students to quickly identify important critical discussions of 400 early English poems not covered in previous editions. Explications are defined as examinations "of a work of literature for a knowledge of each part, for the relations of these parts to each other, and for their relations to the whole." Explications chosen are those deemed most essential for students and scholars. A variety of critical perspectives (Marxist, psychological, linguistic, stylistic, deconstructionist, and feminist) are represented. The many anonymous poems of this period are listed by title; poets are listed alphabetically by last name; and under name headings, poems are listed alphabetically by title. A list of main sources consulted concludes the book. This welcome expansion of a standard and valuable checklist is highly recommended for all academic libraries. -E. J. Carpenter, Oberlin College