Rural Life in Eighteenth-Century English Poetry (Paperback)

Introduction; Part I. 'Hard Labour We Most Chearfully Pursue': Three Poets On Rural Work: 1. Thomson, Duck, Collier and rural realism; 2. Initiations and peak-times; 3. Three types of labour; 4. Compensations; 5. Homecomings; Part II. 'A Pastoral Convention and a Ruminative Mind': Agricultural Prescription In The Fleece: 6. Sheep and poetry; 7. 'Soil and clime'; 8. Environment and heredity; 9. The care of sheep; 10. The shepherd's harvest; Bibliography; Index.