I began working on this book in 1986, but, because of various obligations unconnected with it and the pressure of administrative duties, my ideas saw light only gradually, in the form of preliminary articles and talks. Completion was delayed until New York University granted me sabbatical leave in the fall of 1991. Perhaps that delay was as well, since the subject I had undertaken – the effect of cultural, political, and economic change on how people think about love, as seen in representative seventeenth-century poetry – was subtle and complicated. As far as possible, I have tried to let the poems and the other materials I have worked with dictate the kind of book that has emerged. One may be tempted, in exploring such a large area – much subject at this time to political passions – to begin with a set thesis, method, or ideology. My own biases will no doubt emerge and convict me. Still I have tried at every stage not only to interpret, which is the essence of the study, but to let the poetry guide that interpretation and speak for itself.

After having undertaken a previous investigation of poetry and cultural change, I have been confirmed by this new study in my faith that poets are far more sensitive than most of us to the broad cultural and political transformations in society that impact on our individual lives.