New Thinking: Language, the Victorians and Us
Arts & Ideas
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The Politics of Dialect Poetry
There's very little radicalism in dialect poetry before the cotton famine. It becomes a conscious regional comment on global concerns. So there is a political intervention there, but it can't be radical because there's nobody to fight against. They can't stop the American Civil War. It's an external force. And it's incredible to see this very local response to a global economic disruption. Other poets are doing it as well with you, Billington, Samuel Lekock. The national famous dialect poem was come onto the children and me by Edwin Mora in 1856.
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