Reading Romantic Poetry introduces the major themes andpreoccupations, and the key poems and players of a period convulsedby revolution, prolonged warfare and political crisis.* Provides a clear, lively introduction to Romantic Poetry,backed by academic research and marked by its accessibility tostudents with little prior experience of poetry* Introduces many of the major topics of the age, from politicsto publishing, from slavery to sociability, from Milton to the mindof man* Encourages direct responses to poems by opening up differentaspects 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 thepoem on the page* Deepens understanding of poems through awareness of theirliterary, historical, political and personal contexts* Includes the major poets of the period, Blake, Wordsworth,Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats, Burns and Clare --as well asa host of less familiar writers, including women