Romantic London

Romantic London: William Blake and Thomas Campbell

Join Jake Elliott (University of Roehampton) and Amy Wilcockson (University of Glasgow) as they discuss current research on two Romantic poets. William Blake is renowned for his extraordinary poetry and artwork, whilst Thomas Campbell was a contemporary bestseller few have heard of today. Jake and Amy will focus on these two poets’ perceptions of London as a city, and as a place to live and work.

Jake Elliott will place William Blake’s depiction of his poetic figure Los as 'Albions Watchman' in the context of debates about London’s policing at the turn of the nineteenth century. Before the introduction of Robert Peel’s uniformed 'Bobbies' in 1827, tentative movements towards centralisation were often tempered by celebrations of the London Watchman as a local figure resistant to arbitrary authority. In the poem 'Jerusalem', Blake’s Watchman utilises this trope but within a wider, visionary context. By situating Blake’s work within this vibrant – often visual – debate, we can trace productive links between Blake’s lived London and the visionary cityscapes which pervade his work.

Through using examples of Thomas Campbell’s unpublished correspondence, Amy Wilcockson will examine the role of London and the literary networks found within the city on Campbell’s career and private life. Discussions of Campbell’s roots in Glasgow, and his introduction to the Holland House set, Lord Byron, and publishers including John Murray and Henry Colburn combine to create a sense of the practicalities of being a working poet in the early nineteenth century. This talk will also explore the popular London periodical, the 'New Monthly Magazine', and Campbell’s role as its powerful editor.

About the presenters

Jake Elliott is a third year PhD student at the University of Roehampton researching the works of William Blake in the context of his contemporary London. His work blends an interest in Romantic visual cultures and theories of urban space to explore how Blake’s response to the city reflects, and resists, other contemporary attempts to process the expanding metropolis. He has recently returned from a UKRI funded, three-month research fellowship at the Huntington Library in California.

Dr Amy Wilcockson is a Research Assistant at the University of Glasgow, working on the Leverhulme Trust-funded project ‘The Works of Robert Fergusson: Reconstructing Textual and Cultural Legacies’. She has recently completed her PhD at the University of Nottingham, concentrating on editing the letters of the prominent yet neglected Scottish Romantic poet, Thomas Campbell (1777-1844). She is also the Communications Officer for the British Association for Romantic Studies (BARS).