Item Detail
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24599
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2
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0
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English
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Mormon Maritime Migration in Meter
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Madison, NJ
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Drew University
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Ph.D. Dissertation
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Mormon immigration began in 1840 with the departure of forty America-bound LDS (Latter-day Saint) proselytes from Liverpool, England. Between 1840-1890, more than 100,000 known LDS immigrants crossed the Atlantic Ocean, responding to a call to gather in a "promised land," which they called "Zion." Dozens of these immigrants wrote poetry to describe and express various emotions felt during their journeys. A considerable amount of work has already been done on Mormon migration by sail, rail and trail. Also, there has been some research of pioneer journals, diaries and letters, as well as Mormon literature. But analyses of Mormon migration poetry are rare. This dissertation concerns nineteenth-century poetry written by British-born Mormon immigrants before, during, and after their transatlantic voyage to America. Essentially, it constitutes a presentation, classification, analysis and evaluation of representative Mormon migration poetry from several of the LDS Church's early pioneer-era publications. It offers analyses of selected poems framed within discussions of British immigration to the United States and Church establishment in America as these events provide historical context for the poetry. A concluding index classifies the collection's contents by author name, work title, theme, publication date, and composition location. The majority of these poems have been stored in LDS university and church archives; only a few have been republished since their original appearance in the mid-nineteenth century. Even fewer have been analyzed in terms of their literary merit. Collectively these poems, as textual snapshots, uniquely capture this migration experience. Much of the derivative material is unusually polished, and literarily complex, despite the general lack of education and "sophistication" of its working-class authors. Ultimately, this project brings due attention to an unexamined corpus of literature rich in literary and historical value. Collectively, these poems uniquely chronicle the largest religious migration since America's post-revolution founding, one which had a profound impact on American history and its efforts at continental expansion. [Author's abstract]