Wordsworth and Railways
Wordsworth and Railways
This chapter offers a wide-ranging reappraisal of the controversy provoked by the projected Kendal and Windermere Railway in the years 1844 to 1847. It re-examines Wordsworth’s motives for entering this controversy, the support and opposition he attracted, including some poetical ripostes, what he failed to see and where he was far-sighted. Frequently criticized as selfish, class-biased discrimination against mass-tourism, or welcomed as a dawn of modern environmentalism, Wordsworth’s anti-railway sonnets and letters published in the Morning Post were in fact more complex than has been supposed, and sometimes contradictory. Far from rejecting railways and technological invention, Wordsworth predicted a glorious future for steam power in terms that were, ironically, quickly appropriated by railway promoters to further their own aims. Ranging widely beyond the Kendal and Windermere Railway, the debate allowed Wordsworth to voice his opinions on scenery, transport, self-dependence, master-employee relations, local society and economy, aesthetics and prescient environmental considerations.
Keywords: Kendal and Windermere Railway, railway controversy, railway sonnets, mass-tourism, self-dependence, local economy, protection of scenery
Liverpool Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.