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 vii1 The Pleasures of Poetry 12 Solitude and Sociability 343 Common Concerns and Cultural Connections 654 Traditions and Transformations: Poets as Readers 955 Reading or Listening? Romantic Voices 1326 Sweet Sounds 1627 Poems on Pages 193References 227Index 230