Floating Worlds: Émigré Poetry and British Culture

Victorian emigrant ships headed to the Australian colonies carried printing presses and published newspapers on board for the entertainment of passengers; the emigrants themselves generated most of the content. Based on archival work in Australia, South Africa, and England, this essay analyzes poetry published in these ship newspapers, and shows how emigrant poems engage both nostalgically and parodically with canonic poetry of the period: works by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Thomas Hood. Shipboard emigrant poems showcase the process of transition from home to abroad, British citizen to colonial subject; they offer an important view into the culture of Victorian emigration and colonialism.