Reading Romantic Poetry introduces the major themes and
preoccupations, and the key poems and players of a period convulsed
by revolution, prolonged warfare and political crisis.

* Provides a clear, lively introduction to Romantic Poetry,
backed by academic research and marked by its accessibility to
students with little prior experience of poetry

* Introduces many of the major topics of the age, from politics
to publishing, from slavery to sociability, from Milton to the mind
of man

* Encourages direct responses to poems by opening up different
aspects of the literature and fresh approaches to reading

* Discusses the poets' own reading and experience of being read,
as well as analysis of the sounds of key poems and the look of the
poem on the page

* Deepens understanding of poems through awareness of their
literary, historical, political and personal contexts

* Includes the major poets of the period, Blake, Wordsworth,
Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats, Burns and Clare --as well as
a host of less familiar writers, including women

Fiona Stafford is Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford. She has published on a wide range of Romantic literature, and is especially interested in the literary relationships between England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. She has written several books including Local Attachments: The Province of Poetry (2010) and Brief Lives: Jane Austen (2008), and has edited Wordsworth and Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads (2013), as well as novels by Jane Austen and Mary Shelley.

Klappentext

"An excellent, well-written resource for those interested in Romantic poetry Stafford brings a new sensibility and fresh eye to the subject Highly recommended." CHOICE

"A splendid volume which anyone teaching Romantic poetry would want to read and want their students to read." Michael O'Neill, Durham University

"A wonderful introduction to the subject by one of Britain's foremost readers and critics of Romantic poetry." Jon Mee, University of Warwick

Coleridge argued that the most powerful poems were those "to which we return with the greatest pleasure." Reading Romantic Poetry demonstrates, through careful critical analysis, the ways in which the rich poetry of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries can speak directly to modern audiences.

The book introduces readers, often for the first time, to the pleasure of reading Romantic poetry. The famous poets of the period are included: Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats, Burns, and Clare – together with a host of less familiar writers, such as the women poets Smith, Yearsley, Barbauld, More, and Hemans.

Reading Romantic Poetry introduces the major themes and preoccupations, the key poems and players, as well as the crucial literary circles and influences of a period convulsed by revolution, prolonged warfare, and political crisis.

Zusammenfassung
Reading Romantic Poetry introduces the major themes and preoccupations, and the key poems and players of a period convulsed by revolution, prolonged warfare and political crisis.

• Provides a clear, lively introduction to Romantic Poetry, backed by academic research and marked by its accessibility to students with little prior experience of poetry
• Introduces many of the major topics of the age, from politics to publishing, from slavery to sociability, from Milton to the mind of man
• Encourages direct responses to poems by opening up different aspects of the literature and fresh approaches to reading
• Discusses the poets' own reading and experience of being read, as well as analysis of the sounds of key poems and the look of the poem on the page
• Deepens understanding of poems through awareness of their literary, historical, political and personal contexts
• Includes the major poets of the period, Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats, Burns and Clare as well as a host of less familiar writers, including women

Preface vii

1 The Pleasures of Poetry 1

2 Solitude and Sociability 34

3 Common Concerns and Cultural Connections 65

4 Traditions and Transformations: Poets as Readers 95

5 Reading or Listening? Romantic Voices 132

6 Sweet Sounds 162

7 Poems on Pages 193

References 227

Index 230