Nothing to admire the politics of poetic satire from Dryden to Merrill - Yu, Christopher (Oxford University Press, 2003)
Includes bibliographical references (pages 195-211) and index
Satura redux : Dryden and the Augustan ideal -- Arm'd for virtue : pope as cultural liberal -- Byron, laughter, and legitimation -- Auden in the polis of the absurd -- Imbued with otherness : Merrill's mock-epics of desire
This work argues for the persistence of a central tradition of poetic satire in English that extends from Restoration England to present-day America. The tradition is seen as rooted in the uses of Augustan metaphor to criticize the abuse of social and political power and to promote freedom of mind