Edmund Gosse and the History of English Classical Poetry: Science or Art?

About the author:

Maria S. Sloistova, PhD in Philology, Independent Scholar.

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ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5373-513X

Abstract:

The present paper focuses on the history of the rise of classical poetry in the17th century England by Edmund Gosse, the outstanding British 19th century critic, writer and poet. The author aims at analyzing Gosse’s work as a scientific monograph, on the one hand, and fiction, on the other hand. In his history of the rise of English classical poetry Gosse sheds light upon the life and work of twelve poets: E. Waller, J. Denham, W. Davenant, A. Cowley, S. Godolphin, J. Cleveland, R. Wild, W. Chamberlayne, T. Stanley, H. Vaughan, A. Marvell, J. Dryden. The paper deals with the scientific methods used by Gosse in his work and its fictional elements such as his personal point of view, a variety of stylistic devices, etc. The author of the present paper draws a conclusion on the combination and interaction of a work of science and that of fiction in Gosse’s book.