This major study of the relation between poetry and politics, from the 1688 Revolution to the beginning of the 19th century, focuses in particular on the works of Dryden, Pope, Johnson and Wordsworth. It is one of the undoubted merits of Howard Erskine-Hill that many of his literary works are accessible to the historian, and his elucidation of difficult poetry can help the historian by opening up a better understanding the past and of how past events and issues were understood by some of the most gifted contemporary poets. This handsomely produced and gracefully written book is aimed at literary scholars, but historians will also learn much from it.