Written on the Water: British Romanticism and the Maritime Empire of Culture

Contents

Contents Preface ix List of Abbreviations xix Introduction: Familiar with the Sea 1 Part One Oceanic Fables of Culture 21 1 Change Your Lakes for Ocean 23 2 Imperial Solutions 56 Part Two The Wordsworth Circle’s Modes of Insular Empire 81 3 The Maritime Georgic 83 4 Britannia’s Pastorals 115 5 The Dissolution of Epic 153 Part Three Culture’s Midland Waters: Coleridge, Byron, Arnold, America 189 6 Nautical Existence 191 7 Shipwreck for a Poet 222 Envoi: For Us Repeopled Were the Solitary Shore 251 Notes 255 Works Cited 283 Index 309 This page intentionally left blank ...