Things, Description, and Metaphor in Contemporary British and Irish Poetry

Abstract

Accurate description has almost become the touchstone of value for contemporary critics and reviewers of British and Irish poetry, and indeed for many poets and readers. It was not always so: Behold the place, where if a Poet Shin'd in Description, he might show it, Tell how the Moon-beam trembling falls And tips with silver all the walls ... But let it (in a word) be said, The Moon was up, and Men a-bed.