"The Romantic Imagination and Astronomy is the first book to reconstruct the history of the science of astronomy and its importance to the Romantic imagination in exploration and colonization by imperial England. It examines how the science of astronomy in exploration and discovery, from Edmund Halley and William Herschel to Captain Cook, changed the world by tying the 'pure' science of astronomy to the practical, commercial, and martial aims of navigation for the maritime nation of England. It demonstrates that the same 'pure' science of astronomy also fueled the Romantic poetic imagination, influencing the evolution of form and content of poetry -- from formation of the greater Romantic lyric of Barbauld and Coleridge, to the fantastic narratives of Keats and Shelley"-- Provided by publisher.