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War, Empire, Slavery: Radicalism in the Work of Robert Tannahill
Author(s) -
Ferguson Jim
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
literature compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.158
H-Index - 4
ISSN - 1741-4113
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-4113.2008.00542.x
Subject(s) - romanticism , humanism , political radicalism , poetry , politics , literature , empire , romance , argument (complex analysis) , content (measure theory) , democracy , history , philosophy , art , law , political science , ancient history , mathematical analysis , biochemistry , chemistry , mathematics
This essay was runner‐up in the 2007Literature CompassGraduate Essay Prize, Romanticism Section. This essay surveys the political content of the poetry and song of Paisley weaver‐poet Robert Tannahill (1774–1810). The argument is that most nineteenth‐century commentators ignored the political content of Tannahill's work by presenting him primarily as a poet of nature. It looks at Tannahill's view of the war with France; his expression of anti‐imperialist and anti‐slavery outlooks in his poem, ‘Lines on The Pleasures of Hope’, dedicated to Glasgow‐born Whig poet, Thomas Campbell. The broad democratic‐humanism of Tannahill's song lyric, ‘Why Unite to Banish Care’ is also analysed to reveal a poet who felt deeply about political and social justice during the early Romantic period.