Wordsworth and the GeologistsCambridge University Press, 2. nov 1995 - 268 pages Examination of the links between science and literary history is providing new insight for scholars across a range of disciplines. In Wordsworth and the Geologists, first published in 1995, John Wyatt explores the relationship between a major Romantic poet and a group of scientists in the formative years of a new discipline, geology. Wordsworth's later poems and prose display unexpected knowledge of contemporary geology and a preoccupation with many of the philosophical issues concerned with the developing science of geology. Letters and diaries of a group of leading geologists reveal that they knew Wordsworth, and discussed their subject with him. Wyatt shows how the implications of such discussions challenge the simplistic version of 'two cultures', the Romantic-literary against the scientific-materialistic; and he reminds us of the variety of interrelating discourses current between 1807 (the year of the foundation of the Geological Society of London) and 1850 (the year of Wordsworth's death). |
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activity Adam Sedgwick Alps belief Buckland Burnet Cambridge Catastrophism chapter Coleridge Coleridge's consider contemporary culture Davy described Diluvial distinctness Divine Dorothy Dorothy Wordsworth Duddon Valley early nineteenth century earth edition English evidence Excursion fossil friends G. B. Greenough Geological Society geologists geology George Greenough Guide human mind Hutton Ibid ideas identified imagination important Inductive Sciences influence intellectual interest James Hutton Julius Hare knowledge Lake District landscape language later poems laws letters literary literature London Lyell Lyrical Ballads major mineralogy moral mountains nature notebooks observation Otley passage period philosophical poet poet's poetic poetry Prelude processes prose record reference River Duddon rocks Romantic Romanticism Rupke Rydal scientific scientists sense sequence social stratigraphy term theme theory Todhunter travellers Trinity College unity University valley Whewell's William Buckland William Whewell William Wordsworth word Wordsworth Wordsworth's later Wordsworthian worth writing