Chapter published in:
Renaissance Man: Essays on literature and culture for Anthony W. Johnson
Edited by Tommi Alho, Jason Finch and Roger D. Sell
[FILLM Studies in Languages and Literatures 11] 2019
► pp. 103–128

Chapter 4
John Sheffield’s Essay upon Poetry

The use of literature for educational purposes in the long eighteenth century

Article outline
  • “There is indeed nothing in poetry, so entertaining”: Didactic poetry in the long eighteenth century
  • “A master-piece in its kind”: John Sheffield’s Essay upon Poetry
  • “T’inform the Ignorant, and warn the Bold”: The Essay and its audiences
  • “But who that task can after Horace do?”: The laws of poetry and what readers were meant to learn from the Essay
  • “Highly disagreeable to the natural pride of man”
  • Conclusion
Published online: 28 November 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/fillm.11.04bor