Poetry and Reform: Periodical Verse from the English Democratic Press, 1792-1824Although the English reform movement was divided ideologically and socially, it was united in its opposition to the aristocratic elite that ruled Britain through a parliament that excluded both the middle and laboring classes. The movement was not just political but cultural as well; its activities included challenging established opinion in every sphere-economics, religion, philosophy, and literature. Poetry and Reform is the only anthology of its kind on poetry from the English reform movement. The volume features 162 poems from twenty-three different periodicals. The poems reflect the cultural vitality of the movement in their intellectual sophistication and defiant rebelliousness. The periodicals and their poets range from moderate liberal to radical socialist, from bourgeois to plebeian. The poems reflect the generic diversity of the period; except for epic, almost every poetic genre is represented here. These poems provide an illuminating context for understanding the major Romantic poets, most of whom wrote for the reform press at some point in their career. The bold Romantic experiments in poetry, which set the agenda for English poetry for decades to come, are unthinkable outside the context of this remarkable democratic insurgence, which increased overall literacy and established an innovative literary spirit. The anthology also makes available to readers a body of poetry" outside the canon" that is valuable in its own terms and that helps us comprehend with greater precision Romantic literary conventions and their origins. Important plebeian poets are introduced, including Allen Davenport, Edward J. Blandford, Robert C. Fair, and Robert Wedderburn. |
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... secretary in 1794 ; Henry Dundas , Viscount Melville , member of Pitt's government , who be- came Home Secretary in June , 1791 . ( 1.43 ) : Nabobs - those who had become rich in India — were sometimes satirized as vulgar nouveaux ...
Periodical Verse from the English Democratic Press, 1792-1824. Secretary , Sidmouth , and the Foreign Secretary , Castlereagh , and then to display their heads on the ends of pikes , were arrested after a violent exchange during which ...
... Secretary ; George Canning ( 1770–1827 ; DNB ) , Tory leader , to become Foreign Secretary after the suicide of Lord Castlereagh . 10 THE LATE HONOURABLE CONDUCT OF THE RADICALS JUSTIFIED When Mordecai , and Israel's suff'ring tribes ...
Contents
THE REFORM | 7 |
REPRESSIVE AFTERMATH A SONG COMPOSED FOR THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE FRENCH | 37 |
The Patriot 1793 | 61 |
Copyright | |
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