The Development of Little Poets' Corner between Cultural Memory and Geopolitics

This article examine the late nineteenth-century creation of a “separate branch” of Poets’ Corner – which was aptly named Little Poets’ Corner – inside Westminster Abbey. The interest of this project lies in the fact that it was meant to celebrate both the nation and wider geo-political entities such as the empire and the English-speaking world or “race,” a concept that implies the acknowledgment of an interconnected world, both inviting and resisting a cosmopolitan attitude. Westminster Abbey’s location at the core of London, close to the Houses of Parliament, and its attraction to pilgrims coming from distant lands, meant that it was not a sanctuary where one could retreat from the pressure of the modern world. And it seems very likely that the attempts to address the Abbey’s celebration of English literature to a wider English-speaking public and to include American literature in the pantheon was partly a response to the increasing importance of transcontinental travel. At the same time, the emphasis placed on the common cultural roots of English speaking-countries may also be regarded as an effort to “contain” the variety of languages that were invading the space of the nation. At a time when globalisation made itself strongly felt in the British metropolis, the Abbey authorities could not fail to acknowledge the changing visage of the world and strove to come to terms with it.