Introduction: Reclaiming Hogg’s Place in British Romanticism

  • Meiko O’Halloran
Chapter

Abstract

When James Hogg (1770–1835) imagined an emerging canon of British Romantic poets, he placed himself at its heart. In a small anonymous collection called The Poetic Mirror, or The Living Bards of Britain (1816), Hogg appears at the very centre, between Wordsworth and Coleridge, with Byron and Scott heading the volume, and Southey and John Wilson closing it. In the guise of an anonymous editor, Hogg presented his readers with a portrait of what the Romantic age looked like with him in it. The collection, purporting to be the work of many well-known poets of the day, combines imitations and parodies in each poet’s characteristic style — a gloomy oriental romance for Byron, a Border romance for Scott, ponderous introspective poems for Wordsworth, a comic ballad about a supernatural flight for Hogg, mystical musings for Coleridge, a mixture of extravagant and pedantic fantasy for Southey, and lyrical hymns for Wilson. Beside the earnest and sometimes comically pretentious strains he supplies for the other bards, Hogg appears much more witty, dynamic and imaginative, with a deftness of touch and a sense of humour which make his ballad ‘The Gude Greye Katt’ one of the jewels of the collection. Even as he depicts himself as an integral part of the modern bardic community, he refuses to take its claims seriously, exploring a dialogic tension between the poets’ theories about their work and their practice.

Keywords

Short Story Literary History Early Reader Literary Form Literary Identity 
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Notes

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Copyright information

© Meiko O’Halloran 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  • Meiko O’Halloran
    • 1
  1. 1.Newcastle UniversityUK

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