Francesco Crocco is the associate director of the online writing lab at Excelsior College. His research interests include game-based learning, gamification, and utopian studies. He lives in Lafayette, Louisiana.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsPrefaceIntroduction1. Bardic Criticism, the Canon and the Invention of the Poet-Bard2. Wordsworth’s Bardic Poetics in Lyrical Ballads3. Wordsworth and Class (Un)Consciousness4. Coleridge, Religious Nationalism and the Anxiety of Empire5. Patriot Women and the Future of EmpireConclusion: William Blake’s Prophecies and the Limits of NationalismChapter NotesBibliographyIndex

“written in a wonderfully accessible style...thought-provoking work.”—European Romantic Review: “An excellent book, thoroughly well thought out and compellingly argued, with a wealth of insightful, and often genuinely revealing, close reading coupled with a masterful command of the secondary literature.”—Stephen C. Behrendt, University of Nebraska; “In contrast to recent books that focus on the artistry and historiography of balladry in the Romantic period, and in a style that is admirable for its lucidity and precision, this new book argues cogently that the themes of nationalism and, in the book’s outstanding conclusion, anti-nationalism constitute arguments about the changing nation in which these ballads were wrought.”—Terence Hoagwood, Texas A&M University.

Francesco Crocco is the associate director of the online writing lab at Excelsior College. His research interests include game-based learning, gamification, and utopian studies. He lives in Lafayette, Louisiana.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsPrefaceIntroduction1. Bardic Criticism, the Canon and the Invention of the Poet-Bard2. Wordsworth’s Bardic Poetics in Lyrical Ballads3. Wordsworth and Class (Un)Consciousness4. Coleridge, Religious Nationalism and the Anxiety of Empire5. Patriot Women and the Future of EmpireConclusion: William Blake’s Prophecies and the Limits of NationalismChapter NotesBibliographyIndex

“written in a wonderfully accessible style...thought-provoking work.”—European Romantic Review: “An excellent book, thoroughly well thought out and compellingly argued, with a wealth of insightful, and often genuinely revealing, close reading coupled with a masterful command of the secondary literature.”—Stephen C. Behrendt, University of Nebraska; “In contrast to recent books that focus on the artistry and historiography of balladry in the Romantic period, and in a style that is admirable for its lucidity and precision, this new book argues cogently that the themes of nationalism and, in the book’s outstanding conclusion, anti-nationalism constitute arguments about the changing nation in which these ballads were wrought.”—Terence Hoagwood, Texas A&M University.

Francesco Crocco is the associate director of the online writing lab at Excelsior College. His research interests include game-based learning, gamification, and utopian studies. He lives in Lafayette, Louisiana.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsPrefaceIntroduction1. Bardic Criticism, the Canon and the Invention of the Poet-Bard2. Wordsworth’s Bardic Poetics in Lyrical Ballads3. Wordsworth and Class (Un)Consciousness4. Coleridge, Religious Nationalism and the Anxiety of Empire5. Patriot Women and the Future of EmpireConclusion: William Blake’s Prophecies and the Limits of NationalismChapter NotesBibliographyIndex

“written in a wonderfully accessible style...thought-provoking work.”—European Romantic Review: “An excellent book, thoroughly well thought out and compellingly argued, with a wealth of insightful, and often genuinely revealing, close reading coupled with a masterful command of the secondary literature.”—Stephen C. Behrendt, University of Nebraska; “In contrast to recent books that focus on the artistry and historiography of balladry in the Romantic period, and in a style that is admirable for its lucidity and precision, this new book argues cogently that the themes of nationalism and, in the book’s outstanding conclusion, anti-nationalism constitute arguments about the changing nation in which these ballads were wrought.”—Terence Hoagwood, Texas A&M University.