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Contributor Biographies
Anderson, Parker
Parker Anderson is a 5th year senior majoring in English and Economics. He is originally from Sheboygan, WI, and chose his poems mainly by finding interesting works to him. The title Prince Arthur drew him to Blackmore’s epic poem and he chose to include the beginning of Blackmore’s work. Gould’s poem “A Satyr Upon Man” is interesting because much of his book focuses on viewpoints about women. Gould writes this poem to even out the score between the genders in his work. Finally, Edmund Waller’s poem was anthologized with his other independent works time and time again, despite its purpose as a congratulatory work for his friend.
Beth, Jennifer
Jennifer Beth is a senior from Madison, Wisconsin majoring in English Literature and Pre-Physician Assistant studies. She chose the poem X. from Sir Philip Sidney’s sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella because of the depiction of the struggle between reason and love. She chose John Donne’s A Valediction Forbidding Mourning. Donne, a metaphysical poet, is one of her favorite poets, and loves the simple and direct style that he uses to depict the spirituality of love. The final poem chosen is Andrew Marvell’s The Garden. Marvell was also a metaphysical poet as well as a politician, and she loves his depiction of the fall of man amidst the idealistic rejection of society and its constraints within the garden of Paradise.
Bluett, Hannah
The poems selected by Hannah Bluett include excerpts from Edmund Spenser’s The Faery Queene, Phineas Fletcher’s The purple island and John Milton’s Paradise lost. Although Spenser and Milton often appear anthologized in many collections of British literature, she stumbled upon these particular authors entirely on accident. While skimming through books available in Special Collections, Phineas Fletcher’s name drew her special attention and she researched the author. Several critics argued that Fletcher’s poetry functions as a transition between Spenser and Milton’s famous poetry. Upon discovering this information, Hannah decided to randomly select a passage she considered beautiful from each of the author’s larger poems, and those three selections can be found in this anthology. Hannah is in her third year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and studies English literature, Spanish linguistics and European studies.