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Lunar Lecture - Erasmus Darwin’s Poetical Oaks

Name: Lunar Lecture - Erasmus Darwin’s Poetical Oaks
Start: 2026-04-08T19:00:00+01:00
End: 2026-04-08T19:00:00+01:00
Location: Erasmus Darwin House

About

Lunar Lecture - Romanticism, Place, Identity and the Picturesque: Erasmus Darwin’s Poetical Oaks by Professor Paul Elliott

Erasmus Darwin and his literary and philosophical friends were inspired by trees which Darwin believed were essential for economic utility, horticultural improvement, productive estate management and ecological vitality. In his Lichfield botanical garden and other gardens, Darwin strove to unite as his friend and biographer Anna Seward claimed, practical botany with picturesque prospects by creating and experiencing planted and poetic vegetable realms. Ancient oaks demonstrated how trees flourished best, underscoring their cultural status as ‘monarchs of the forest’ in nature's economy, encouraging Darwin to emphasise the vital, intertwined relationship between woodland and humanity and its impact upon history, culture and society.

This talk takes a close look at some of Darwin’s sylvan poems showing how and why it was venerable oaks he chose to represent his poetical passions inspired by knowledge and experience of regional woodlands. This was informed by practical botany, use of plant substances in medicine, manufactures and industry, experimental observations in gardens and orchards and analyses of vegetable physiology and anatomy.

So come and take a stroll into the woods with Darwin and his friends!