Poetry in the nineteenth century enjoyed a popularity and a breadth of readership unimaginable today. The most successful poets, moreover, enjoyed very large readerships outside of their home countries (e.g. Longfellow in Britain, Tennyson and the Brownings in America, Poe in France). This course will discuss mid-nineteenth-century British and American poetry in the context of transatlantic exchanges. Among other topics, we will address the politics of sentimental poetics, the connections between poetry and nationalism, the material conditions that enabled transatlantic literary exchanges (printing presses, transatlantic steamship voyages, new technologies for communicating), the ongoing importance of human and animal rights in the nineteenth century (especially in relation to American slavery), and evolving theories (often understood in national contexts) of poetic form. And, naturally, the class will discuss poetry: some of the most influential poetry and poetic theory written in the nineteenth century.

--