Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2022
This study employs keyword searches of literary databases such as Literature Online (LION) in an attempt to map the image of “Persia” in nineteenth-century English poetry as it was molded by a proliferation of thoughts and ideas in a variety of contexts. Completeness is not possible, of course, but the article aims to identify and explore some of the major categories within which the image of Persia was formed and disseminated in the nineteenth-century. The scope of the study is not confined to a corpus of poetic works that were written specifically on or about “Persia,” but takes account of a broader range of poems, and attends to the structure, texture and variations of the presence of “Persia” in nineteenth-century English poetry.
The author would like to express his gratitude to Professor Daniel Karlin, whose scholarly guidance and editorial touch, helped to compile and complete this taxonomy. The author would also like to thank Professor Charles Melville, Dr. Jane Wright, Dr. Madhu Krishnan and Craig Savage for their comments and constructive criticism. Thanks are also due to the anonymous reviewer of Iranian Studies.