ABSTRACT
A Utopian scheme will invariably seek to address problems experienced at a particular time and in a particular cultural setting, its aspirations will be coloured by popular dreams of perfection, and the ways in which ideas are expressed are also a product of their time. In England there is plentiful historical evidence of the conjunction of theory and practice, of Utopian ideas and community experiments. For Utopias are in many ways like a mirror that is held up to the society in which they are conceived, exposing everyday frailties as well as outlining a picture of something better. Problems of hunger, poverty, political injustice, inequality and warfare are all addressed in different ways in Utopian schemes. Southey was just one of a generation of romantics who returned to the late fourteenth century, lured by the guild organization in the towns as well as by the dream of a peasant republic, to locate their own Utopian ideas.
