Download or read book The English Lyric Tradition written by R. James Goldstein and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2017-03-23 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modern readers can sometimes be unsure about the language and the literary conventions of medieval and Renaissance verse--lyrical works written at a time before poetry was assumed to be about personal expression. This readers' guide introduces to a 21st century audience some of the greatest masterpieces of English poetry spanning five centuries. Focusing on poems by Chaucer, Wyatt, Shakespeare, Milton and others, the author discusses the development of poetic technique, explains the rhetorical culture of earlier centuries and describes the various lyric forms--including lover's complaints, sonnets and elegies--that poets used to communicate with readers.