The Ocean Bards

H. George Hahn

ISBN 10: 3631335695 / ISBN 13: 9783631335697

Published by Peter Lang AG, CH, 2008

About this Item

Long before Patrick O'Brian's and C. S. Forester's novels of the great age of combat sail, a vast popular poetry abounded in Britain about the war at sea against the French Revolution and Napoleonic Empire. This book tells the story of how that poetry, with its sailors and admirals as folk heroes, became a driving force for morale, national identity and patriotism that would flourish until 1918. Focusing on the sea poetry of Britain during that twenty-two year war, 1793-1815, the book shows how heretofore overlooked invasion poems, sea battle ballads, victory odes, seascapes and sailors' elegies are crucial to a full understanding of literary, naval, and social history during the era of Nelson and Romanticism. The author opens a straight channel to link literary and military readerships and lays an important plank in the bridge of war literature arching from Homer to Hemingway.

Seller Inventory # LU-9783631335697

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Ocean Bards
• Publisher: Peter Lang AG, CH
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3631335695
• ISBN 13: 9783631335697
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 280 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Long before Patrick O’Brian’s and C. S. Forester’s novels of the great age of combat sail, a vast popular poetry abounded in Britain about the war at sea against the French Revolution and Napoleonic Empire. This book tells the story of how that poetry, with its sailors and admirals as folk heroes, became a driving force for morale, national identity and patriotism that would flourish until 1918. Focusing on the sea poetry of Britain during that twenty-two year war, 1793-1815, the book shows how heretofore overlooked invasion poems, sea battle ballads, victory odes, seascapes and sailors’ elegies are crucial to a full understanding of literary, naval, and social history during the era of Nelson and Romanticism. The author opens a straight channel to link literary and military readerships and lays an important plank in the bridge of war literature arching from Homer to Hemingway.

About the Author

The Author: H. George Hahn is professor of English and director of the graduate program in humanities at Towson University, Maryland. His books include a historical interpretation of the British novel to 1770, and critical bibliographies of Henry Fielding and the eighteenth-century British novel. His articles have appeared in major journals.