the complete online text of Steven Marx's book, first published by Peter Lang (1985), and provided here by the author himself. Marx's book examines the theme of generational conflict in the works of the 16th-century court poet, Edmund Spenser, and the 18th/19th-century poet and artist, William Blake. The book touches upon the origins of pastoral debate or singing contests in: classical pastoral; in troubadour verse types such as the sirventes (sirventois); and elsewhere, and explores the tropes of pastoral singing-contests used by these two writers.
