British labouring-class nature poetry, 1730-1837 / Bridget Keegan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Keegan, Bridget.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English poetry--18th century--History and criticism.

English poetry.

English poetry--19th century--History and criticism.

Nature in literature.

Working class writings, English--History and criticism.

Working class writings, English.

Working class authors--Great Britain--Aesthetics.

Working class authors.

Aesthetics.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

xi, 220 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Basingstoke [England] ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.

Summary:

Nearly 1400 poets from labouring-class origins wrote and published in Great Britain between 1700 and 1900, yet much of their work has yet to be properly examined. This study focuses upon how these writers represented nature in their poetry and how they adapted and transformed the poetic genres available to them. Looking in turn at their treatment of different ecosystems, including farms, gardens, hills, rivers, seas and wetlands, the book argues that writing about the environment allowed labouring-class poets to explore important social and aesthetic questions. The book examines the works of numerous poets from Stephen Duck, William Falconer and Ann Yearsley in the eighteenth century to Robert Broomfield and John Clare in the nineteenth century. The book expands the canon of British poetry and broadens the scope of environmental literary criticism by exploring the question of how an author's class background affects his or her engagements with the natural world.

Contents:

Introduction : 'a weed in nature's poesy' : British labouring-class nature poetry, 1730-1837

The fields his study : Robert Bloomfield's poetics of sustainability

Return to the garden : James Woodhouse and polite cultivations

Heavenly prospects : views from Clifton and Cliffden

Writing against the current : Anne Wilson's Teisa and labouring-class river poetry

What terms of art can nature's pow'rs express? : William Falconer and labouring-class poetry at sea

And all is nakedness and fen : John Clare's wetlands

Conclusion : the politics and poetics of wood : labouring-class poetry in the Victorian era.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-211) and index.

ISBN:

0230536964

9780230536968

OCLC:

215171997