Patriotism and Poetry in Eighteenth-Century Britain

Download or read book Patriotism and Poetry in Eighteenth-Century Britain written by Dustin Griffin and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-11-17 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The poetry of the mid- and late-eighteenth century has long been regarded as primarily private and apolitical; in this wide-ranging study Dustin Griffin argues that in fact the poets of the period were addressing the great issues of national life--rebellion at home, imperial wars abroad, an expanding commercial empire, an emerging new British national identity. Taking up the topic of patriotic verse, Griffin shows that poets such as Thomas Gray, Christopher Smart, Oliver Goldsmith, and William Cowper were engaged in the century-long debate about the nature of true patriotism.