Joseph Skipsey: Bir Madenci Şairin Şiirlerinde Doğanın Kullanımı

Abstract

Victorian poetry developed under the influence of profound socio-political transformations and accompanied by diverse literary voices and perspectives includes the poems of many as yet little-known labouring poets from various occupational groups, along with those of the leading figures of the period. One of those poets was the Northumberland collier Joseph Skipsey (1832-1903), who spent most of his life in the coal mines he entered at the age of seven. In his poems, the echoes of the socio-economic realities and cultural codes of his locale are clearly observed. Even if his living in the country might evoke at first glance that Skipsey is quite close to nature, his relations with it surprisingly exist in a narrowed framework and remain within the confines of traditional narrative forms, such as ballad and song. This study aims to reveal the essence of a collier poet’s relationship with nature in his poems within the socio-political conditions of Victorian England. The main argument of the study is that Skipsey does not use nature as a glorified unity of beings, but as a means of balance and a source of material he refers to in narrating emotions, human relations and the realities of miners’ life.