Ebook: Darwin's Bards: British and American Poetry in the Age of Evolution

How the most powerful and perceptive British and American poets grapple with the questions raised by Darwinism

With more than 50 complete poems and wide-ranging extracts from several more, this substantial volume shows how poets responded to the discovery of evolution, from Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning and Thomas Hardy, through Robert Frost and Edna St Vincent Millay, to Ted Hughes, Thom Gunn, Amy Clampitt, Pattiann Rogers and Edwin Morgan. Written as much for scientists, philosophers and ecologists as poets, critics and students of literature, Darwin’s Bards is a timely intervention in today’s debates surrounding Darwin’s legacy for the distinct, yet related worlds of religion, ecology and the arts.

The book will appeal to readers for its discussion of the existential implications of Darwinism, for its close readings of poetry, and for the reprinted poems themselves.

Key Features

• Covers poetry and ecology, as well as the implications of Darwinism for religion
• The combination of complete poems and long extracts with an interpretative framework and close readings makes the book an effective and attractive text book

Want to find out more? Check out Darwin & Poetry? An Interview with John Holmes

Poems in Darwin’s Bards