Inspiration and Insanity in British Poetry 1825-1855 /

• Main Author: Crawford, Joseph (Author, http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut)
• Corporate Author: SpringerLink (Online service)
• Format: Electronic eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.
• Edition: 1st ed. 2019.
• Series: Palgrave Studies in Literature, Science and Medicine
• Subjects: Literature, Modern-19th century.; Poetry.; History.; Philosophy of mind.; Cognitive psychology.; Nineteenth-Century Literature.; Poetry and Poetics.; History of Science.; Philosophy of Mind.; Cognitive Psychology.

This book explores the ways in which poetic inspiration came to be associated with madness in early nineteenth-century Britain. By examining the works of poets such as Barrett, Browning, Clare, Tennyson, Townshend, and the Spasmodics in relation to the burgeoning asylum system and shifting medical d...

Table of Contents:

• 1. Introduction
• 2. 'He was not one of ye': poetry and mental peculiarity, 1825-36
• 3. 'Ah! let me not be fool'd': delusion and inspiration in the poems of Browning and Tennyson, 1832-40
• 4. Sir William's last stand: poetry and insanity in England, 1837-42
• 5. Seeing Things: Mesmerism, Spiritualism, and Romantic Poetry, 1836-55
• 6. 'The Madness': inspiration and insanity in Spasmodic poetry, 1851-55
• 7. Epilogue: 'It is strange.'.