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Chapter 22 - Prospect Poetry

from Part III - Literary Contexts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2024

By
Katherine Turner
Edited by
Michael Griffin  and
David O'Shaughnessy
Michael Griffin
Affiliation:
University of Limerick
David O'Shaughnessy
Affiliation:
University of Galway
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Summary

Prospect Poetry’ situates Goldsmith’s poem The Traveller, or A Prospect of Society (1764) at the confluence of various literary genres and show how its hybridity contributes to its innovative and influential qualities. Goldsmith’s poem modifies the prospect poem by decoupling the observer from any sense of belonging to the landscape, instead developing the figure of the wanderer that comes to inhabit many prose travelogues as well as Romantic epics. It also develops the political tendencies of its various precursor genres by exploring the relationship between individual, family, nation, and empire.

Keywords

The TravellerThe Deserted VillageAlexander PopeJames ThomsonSamuel Johnsontravel
Type
Chapter
Information
Oliver Goldsmith in Context , pp. 186 - 193
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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