Ebenezer Elliott and the Reconstruction of Working-Class Masculinity

Abstract

Ebenezer Elliott (1781-1849) was born the son of a Sheffield iron worker and at an early age began writing poetry while employed in his father's foundry. Though early in his career he published several books of poetry 2 and was mentored by Southey, his work drew little critical attention. Not until Elliott began writing poems in opposition to the Corn Laws during the 1830s and 1840s did his work find a wide audience and achieve critical acclaim. In 1835, W. J. Fox claimed that "no future Johnson will edit the works of the British poets without a biography of [Elliott]." 3 What Fox and many other middle-class critics seemed to admire most about Elliott was his ability to allow the "poor [to] speak of and for themselves" and to promote a "literature of their own," that is, to provide accounts of working-class life in an industrial era (p. 191). In this way, Elliott came to be defined as a leading figure in the "Literature of Poverty." 4