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The Poetry of Erasmus Darwin

2.5/5 ( ratings)

Erasmus Darwin, the Grandfather of Charles Darwin, was in his day hailed as one of the greatest poets of the age. In 1797 Coleridge in a letter to John Thelwall, who was to visit Derby wrote :-

“You are going to Derby! I shall be there with you in spirit. Derby is no common place; but where you will find citizens enough to fill your lecture theatre puzzles me, - Dr Darwin will no doubt excite your respectful curiosity. On the whole, I think, he is the first literary character in Europe, and the most original minded Man.”

No small praise from the pen of one of the greatest romantic poets. In the intervening years virtually all records of this "first literary character" seems to have been expunged from the annals of literary history. Today the few who know anything of him identify his poetry as the worst example of the gaudy didactic verse fashionable in the latter half of the eighteenth century.
In his lifetime he saw his reputation as England's premier poet disintegrate under the relentless pressure of sustained and harsh criticism. That there are faults in his poetry is undeniable. But the extent of his fall from grace is excessive, his almost total absence from texts of literary history unreasonable, and unjustifiable given the merits his philosophical verse displays, and, more importantly, the seminal influence it had upon English Romantic Poetry.
In this brief essay I will throw some light on the merits of Erasmus Darwin’s various works and show to what extent his theories on Natural History and Psychology were to play a part in his grandson Charles Darwin’s formulation of Evolutionary Theory as found in “The Origin of the Species”. I have used contemporary texts extensively to illustrate both the pinnacle of his fame and the depths of his notoriety. But principally to reveal the extent that his philosophies and poetry played in the development of modern thought

Language: English

Format: Kindle Edition

The Poetry of Erasmus Darwin

2.5/5 ( ratings)

Erasmus Darwin, the Grandfather of Charles Darwin, was in his day hailed as one of the greatest poets of the age. In 1797 Coleridge in a letter to John Thelwall, who was to visit Derby wrote :-

“You are going to Derby! I shall be there with you in spirit. Derby is no common place; but where you will find citizens enough to fill your lecture theatre puzzles me, - Dr Darwin will no doubt excite your respectful curiosity. On the whole, I think, he is the first literary character in Europe, and the most original minded Man.”

No small praise from the pen of one of the greatest romantic poets. In the intervening years virtually all records of this "first literary character" seems to have been expunged from the annals of literary history. Today the few who know anything of him identify his poetry as the worst example of the gaudy didactic verse fashionable in the latter half of the eighteenth century.
In his lifetime he saw his reputation as England's premier poet disintegrate under the relentless pressure of sustained and harsh criticism. That there are faults in his poetry is undeniable. But the extent of his fall from grace is excessive, his almost total absence from texts of literary history unreasonable, and unjustifiable given the merits his philosophical verse displays, and, more importantly, the seminal influence it had upon English Romantic Poetry.
In this brief essay I will throw some light on the merits of Erasmus Darwin’s various works and show to what extent his theories on Natural History and Psychology were to play a part in his grandson Charles Darwin’s formulation of Evolutionary Theory as found in “The Origin of the Species”. I have used contemporary texts extensively to illustrate both the pinnacle of his fame and the depths of his notoriety. But principally to reveal the extent that his philosophies and poetry played in the development of modern thought

Language: English

Format: Kindle Edition

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