Lyric wonder : rhetoric and wit in Renaissance English poetry /

Biester's is the sixth volume in the "Rhetoric Society" series. Previous books in this series--e.g., Jody Enders's Rhetoric and the Origins of Medieval Drama (CH, Mar'93), which initiated the series, and Wayne Rebhorn's The Emperor of Men's Minds (CH, Sep'95)--have affirmed the significance of rhetoric as "both an important intellectual discipline and a necessary cultural practice." Linking the rhetorical practices of lyric poets, particularly John Donne, to the sense of wonder, which in the Renaissance was associated with both language and action, Biester (Loyala Univ.) proves (in Jacques LeGoff's terms) that "the history of words is history itself." The author does not engage in the discourse of gender, which has characterized much recent work on Renaissance poetry, for instance, Heather Dubrow's Echoes of Desire: English Petrachism and Its Counterdiscourses (CH, May'96), but he convincingly links changing rhetorical conventions to the political circumstances that attended the shift from Elizabethan to Jacobean England. Useful to students of Renaissance drama as well as lyric poetry. Extensive notes; carefully prepared bibliography. Highly recommended for both undergraduate and graduate study. M. C. Riggio; Trinity College (CT)