This work investigates the historical intersection between scientific advancement and the evolution of English poetic expression from the late Renaissance to the mid-twentieth century. Douglas Bush, a distinguished scholar of English literature, utilizes a chronological framework to analyze how poets from the Elizabethan era through the modern period integrated, resisted, or reinterpreted the changing scientific landscape of their times. By examining the shifting relationship between empirical observation and imaginative verse, the author argues that science has served as both a catalyst and a challenge for poetic form and content.

Scholars frequently cite this text as a foundational study for understanding the intellectual history of English literature. Readers often note the academic density of the prose, which provides a rigorous examination of the shifting cultural dialogue between the sciences and the humanities.