"Against and Within": Neoclassicism and the Social Plan in Early Romantic Period Laboring-Class Poetry
No Thumbnail Available
Authors
Osborn, Katherine Marie
Issue Date
2013-05-09
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Alternative Title
"Against and Within": Neoclassicism and the Social Plan in Early Romantic Period Laboring-Class Poetry
Abstract
This paper will argue that rather than using neoclassical forms and topoi as a means of garnering influence, pleasing patrons, or, in the case of couplet verse, ease of “memorability,” these Romantic period laboring-class poets also found in working both “against and within” Augustan modes and ideologies a unique and powerful way of understanding and writing their modern lives, and of addressing their cultural masters. Their use of neoclassical modes in every case is related to a democratic impulse, more powerful than a belief in that great eighteenth-century maxim poeta nascitur non fit. We will see, in exploring the topoi of labor, gratitude, and the prospect view, that Hands, Yearsley, and Bloomfield desired to close the social and professional distance between laboring-class and refined poet.
Description
Citation
Publisher
Creighton University
License
Copyright is retained by the Author.
A non-exclusive distribution right is granted to Creighton University and to ProQuest following the publishing model selected above.