Topographical poetry or loco-descriptive poetry is a genre of poetry that describes, and often praises, a landscape or place. John Denham's 1642 poem "Cooper's Hill" established the genre, which peaked in popularity in 18th-century England with the poetry of William Wordsworth (e.g. "Tintern Abbey" [1798]). Alexander Pope's "Windsor Forest" (1713) and John Dyer's "Grongar Hill' (1762) are two other oft-mentioned examples. More recently, Matthew Arnold's "The Scholar Gypsy" (1853) praises the Oxford countryside, and W. H. Auden's "In Praise of Limestone" (1948) uses a limestone landscape as an allegory.
Hills and rivers are the most common settings for topographical poems. American poets in the late 18th century attempted to adapt the style to a new landscape with little success.
Subgenres of topographical poetry include the country house poem, written in 17th-century England to compliment a wealthy patron, and the prospect poem, describing the view from a distance or a temporal view into the future, with the sense of opportunity or expectation.
Jonathan Swift summarized the style as "Descriptions tedious, flat and dry/And introduc'd the Lord knows why".
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