The seventeenth century was the age of Shakespeare, Donne, Jonson, Milton, Marvell, Dryden, and many others hardly less notable. This new selection from an era rich in poetic genius tries to strike a balance between the Metaphysical and the Jonsonian, and contains examples from the relatively neglected strands of popular and non-courtly verse. In addition to familiar favourites, there is a generous proportion of work by women poets and a sampling of American colonial verse.