Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-07T20:33:57.322Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 16 - Environment and Empire

Georgic through Time

from Part III - Territories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2022

Paddy Bullard
Affiliation:
University of Reading
Get access

Summary

This chapter studies the relationship between two of the foremost examples of georgic poetry in English – James Thomson’s The Seasons and Vita Sackville-West’s The Land, and the tradition’s primary ancient model, Virgil’s Georgics. It argues that georgic poetry is deeply implicated in the politics of empire in Roman no less than in British contexts, using themes of geography, travel and patriotism to showcase and celebrate imperial power. Simultaneously, georgic poetry can be read as a kind of archive, celebrating the artisanal practices of rural communities under threat from profit-driven economic models, marrying intense appreciation of the natural world with an equally intense awareness of that world’s fragility. As such, georgic poetry can be usefully read as dramatizing certain contradictions and challenges which remain relevant in global politics in the twenty-first century.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×