Poetry and Industrialism in Liverpool, Sheffield, and Manchester, 1770-1842

This thesis seeks to view the effects of industrial development in the years 1770-1842 in the cities of Manchester, Liverpool, and Sheffield through the lens of their literary output. While the majority of critical responses to urban poetry in this period have centred around London, this project attempts, within these cities, to examine a distinct poetic register reflective of urbanism and local identity, with the focus removed from the capital. Taking into account the social and professional interconnectivity that existed between these three centres, as well as the commercial interests, local history, and political contexts of each site, this thesis offers a complex portrait of the literary worlds that were active, and in some cases significantly influential and commercially successful, within the transpennine region. In doing so, I will demonstrate that the industrialisation, social transformations, and urbanisation that impacted the north of England at this time were not a peripheral presence in what constitutes Romantic-era poetry, but rather central to it, participant in the wider trends that characterise it as a literary movement. Most importantly, this thesis will make a case for these neglected areas as sites of vital poetic innovation, examining an underutilised resource for the conception of the role of literature within this socially, politically, and economically tumultuous period.