Madoc in Scotland: A transatlantic perspective on Stepping Westward

Jarvis, Robin

Abstract

Wordsworth's Stepping Westward, one of the Poems Written During a Tour in Scotland included in Poems, in Two Volumes (1807), has received little critical attention compared with its companion tour poem, The Solitary Reaper. This essay offers a fresh angle on the poem by placing it within the circumstances of its time of composition in late spring 1805 - circumstances that included the personal grief of bereavement and fears for national security at a critical time in the war against France. More particularly, I propose that Wordsworth's reading of Southey's epic Madoc just prior to writing Stepping Westward opens transatlantic horizons of meaning within a poem that otherwise does little to explore the metaphorical potential of its title. Just as modern scholarship has unearthed a complex textual history beneath Southey's published work that reflects his ideological journey during a tumultuous decade, so the strange irresolution of Wordsworth's poem makes sense when both the mythic and contemporary dimensions of westward travel and migration are brought into play.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Publication Date: Apr 1, 2008
• Journal: European Romantic Review
• Print ISSN: 1050-9585
• Electronic ISSN: 1740-4657
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 19
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 149-156
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10509580802030441
• Keywords: Wordsworth, Southey, transatlantic travel
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1013857
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10509580802030441