This work investigates the complex relationship between musical theory and poetic practice in English literature during the Renaissance and early modern periods. John Hollander, a distinguished poet and scholar, utilizes a vast array of primary texts to demonstrate how the concept of the 'music of the spheres' and other Pythagorean musical theories influenced the structure, imagery, and philosophical underpinnings of English verse from 1500 to 1700. He argues that poets of this era did not merely use musical metaphors as decoration, but as a rigorous intellectual framework for understanding the order of the cosmos and the human soul.

This text is regarded as a foundational study in the field of interdisciplinary literary criticism, noted for its immense erudition and meticulous archival research. The analysis provides a dense, scholarly examination of how musical thought shaped the intellectual landscape of the English Renaissance.