Poetic Agency: Metonymy and Metaphor in Chartist Poetry 1838-1852

Abstract

REFLECTING ON THE FIRST NATIONAL CONVENTION, THE ORIGINAL historian of Chartism, R. C. Gammage, commented wryly, did not turn out to be a perfectly harmonious body. [2] According to Gammage, major source of discord was disagreement between advocates of moral and physical (pp. 106-111). While subsequent historiography has offered a more nuanced account of range of opinion within Chartism, it has also confirmed Gammage's assessment that related questions of strategy and agency bedevilled movement throughout its existence. [3] intention of this article is to demonstrate extent to which poetics participate in this central problematic--that of identifying and representing a social force capable of securing Charter. Broadly speaking, article will argue that poetry represents agency through one of two poetic strategies. first uses metonymy and metaphor to invoke and evoke agency respectively, whilst second identifies specific concrete groups which it seeks to interpellate as agents of change. It will argue that these changes in poetic strategy are symptomatic of changes in political understanding. displacement of metonymy by metaphors of natural force, and increasingly self-conscious and sophisticated use of these metaphors combined with emergence of a strategy of interpellation is, it will be argued, poetic analogue of progressive, albeit uneven, development of political analysis. [4] Metaphor and Metonymy Early poetry (1838-1842) frequently represents both Chartism and Chartists in metonymic terms, with flag or banner offered as a sign of activity. Eugene La Mont's Universal Liberty--The Reaction for example begins See banner of freedom, now proudly unfurl'd--, whilst chorus of Edwin P. Mead's Chartist (Hark! 'tis trumpet call) begins Press around standard, press. [5] flag, banner, or similarly stands as a focal point for, or as an index of, action in a number of other poems of period: Air (Swearing death to King,), Presentation of National Petition, Nine Cheers for Charter, One and All, The Enslaved, Song (Ye working men of England). [6] In these poems, agency is generally symbolic rather than actual. A typical example is provided by anonymous poem entitled Air (Swearing death to King): Swearing death to King. Heaven guards heart; Join'd in hand and we'll sing, la Charte, la Charte! Ruin seize knave, Can slavery or woe impart Aught of pleasure to brave, la Charte, la Charte! Bear our high, Terror strikes each miscreant heart; Onward! Still our battle cry, la Charte, la Charte! Raise brand of liberty, Dare foe, smart; chorus loud and high, la Charte, la Charte! This poem makes use of an established radical political rhetoric consisting of abstractions; patriot heart opposes tyrant king, and the brave join battle for liberty. Moreover, despite use of collective pronouns we and ours, there is no sense of a concrete, collective agent within poem. Chartists are represented metonymically by means of their conquering standard (which is borne aloft apparently without assistance of human hands) and by disembodied voices who Swell chorus loud and high. Similarly second half of poem consists of a series of subject-less imperatives: Bear, Onward, Raise, and Swell. Even Charter itself is to some extent alienated by its translation into French, Vive Ia Chattel In short, poem is marked by its inability to instance agency capable of realizing its political aspirations. …