Writing About Glaciers in the Romantic Period

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Glaciers, an integral feature of any mountainous landscape, were the focus of interest, curiosity and admiration for many travelers in the Romantic period, especially those in the Swiss region of Chamounix. During the 18th and 19th century, four of the voyagers who wrote excerpts on the glaciers were Coxe, Bourrit, Ramond and Shelley; these travelers made similar comparisons to each other regarding the nature of glaciers and the emotions evoked upon their viewing.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, there was not a significant amount of scientific information known about the character of glaciers and therefore these travelers would not have had nearly the same exposure to factual information as a visitor in modern times. Even without the modern knowledge, the four writers make a diligent attempt to formulate words to describe the indescribable and unfamiliar, and to explain the nature, formation and behavior of glaciers.

The initial description of the glaciers offered by each writer is in regards to the immense size in non-descript factual and numerical terms, for instance Coxe states that the ice ranges rise "abruptly from their base and parallel to each other" and Bourrit analyses the height of Mount Blanc with mathematical descriptions "when that height is thirty or nearly forty times increased upon a base proportionally massive…". Faced with such massive and overwhelming landscape features, it was probably an element of comfort to associate a numerical perspective in order to better understand the height of the monumental masses in relation to the self. The writers are in general agreement that glaciers are an aspect of the landscape which is hard to describe and formulate words concerning their appearance; th...

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..., University of Alberta. March 26, 2005. http://www.ualberta.ca/~dmiall/Travel/Coxe-Williams.htm

4) Marshall, William. From A Review of the Landscape, a Didactic Poem, 1795. in The Sublime: A Reader in British 18th Century Aesthetic Theory. Ed. Ashfield, Andrew and de Bolla, Peter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

5) Ramond, M. Observations on the Glaciers. From website by Miall, David. Romantic Travellers. Course Home Page. January 2005-May 2005. Dept. of English, University of Alberta. March 26, 2005. http://www.ualberta.ca/~dmiall/Travel/Glaciers.htm

6) Shelley, Percy Bysshe, and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. History of a Six Weeks Tour. From website by Miall, David. Romantic Travellers. Course Home Page. January 2005-May 2005. Dept. of English, University of Alberta. March 26, 2005. http://www.ualberta.ca/~dmiall/Travel/Shelley1.htm

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