This definitive edition, the first since 1974, presents all the poetry of Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), including his play, Irene, with detailed wide-ranging commentary. It has been expertly edited with attention to the extant manuscripts and all relevant printings.

Robert D. Brown is Professor Emeritus of Greek and Roman Studies at Vassar College. His publications include Lucretius on Love and Sex: A Commentary on De Rerum Natura IV, 1030-1287, with Prolegomena, Text and Translation (Brill, 1987), Classical Literature and Its Reception: An Anthology (with Robert DeMaria, Jr.; Wiley-Blackwell, 2006) and Europe, c.1400-1458 by Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (with Nancy Bisaha; The Catholic University of America Press, 2013).

Robert DeMaria, Jr. is the Henry Noble MacCracken Professor of English Literature at Vassar College. He is the author of three monographs on Samuel Johnson: Johnson's Dictionary and the Language of Learning (Oxford, 1986); The Life of Samuel Johnson: A Critical Biography (Blackwell, 1993) and Samuel Johnson and the Life of Reading (Johns Hopkins, 1997). He is the general editor of the Yale Edition of the Works of Samuel Johnson; the co-editor of three volumes in that edition; and the editor of the Johnsonian News Letter.

A Note from the General Editors

Preface

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Chronology

Johnson's Poems

Johnson's Contributions to Poems by Others

Poems of Doubtful Authorship

Poems Wrongly Attributed to Johnson

Lost or Unidentified Poems by Johnson

Appendix

Works Cited

Index of Titles

Index of First Lines