The Penguin Book of Romantic Poetry

by Wordsworth, Jonathan (Editor/introduction); Wordsworth, Jessica (Editor/introduction)

• ISBN13: 9780140435689
• ISBN10: 0140435689
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-02-28
• Publisher: Penguin Classics

Summary

The Romanticism that emerged after the American and French revolutions of 1776 and 1789 represented a new flowering of the imagination and the spirit, and a celebration of the soul of humanity with its capacity for love. This extraordinary collection sets the acknowledged genius of poems such as Blake's 'Tyger', Coleridge's 'Khubla Khan' and Shelley's Ozymandias' alongside verse from less well known figures and women poets such as Charlotte Smith and Mary Robinson. We also see familiar poets in an unaccustomed light, as Blake, Wordsworth and Shelley demonstrate their comic skills, while Coleridge, Keats and Clare explore the Gothic and surreal.

Author Biography

Jonathan Wordsworth is descended from William Wordsworth-'s younger brother, Christopher. He is chairman of the Wordsworth Trust and retired professor of English literature at Oxford.
Jessica Wordsworth is administrator of the Wordsworth Winter School and Summer Conference at Grasmere.

Table of Contents

PREFACE	xxiii
INTRODUCTION: THE ROMANTIC PERIOD	xxvii
1. Origins	xxvii
(i) Revolution and Romantic Vision	xxvii
(ii) A New Style and a New Spirit	xxx
(iii) 'And All Things In Himself': Romantic Platonism	xxxii
2. The Romantic Poets In Context	xxxv
(i) The First Generation	xxxv
(ii) A Gap	xxxix
(iii) The Second Generation	xli
(iv) The Sense of an Ending	xlvii
I. Romantic Hallmarks	3	(37)
1. CHARLOTTE SMITH: To the South Downs (Elegiac Sonnets 1784)	4	(1)
2. ROBERT BURNS: To a Mountain Daisy (1786)	5	(2)
3. MARY ROBINSON: A London Summer Morning (1794; publ. 1804)	7	(1)
4. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE: Kubla Khan (Nov. 1797; pub!. 1816)	8	(2)
5. CHARLES LAMB: Old Familiar Faces (1798)	10	(3)
6. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH: Lucy Poems (winter 1798-9; publ. Lyrical Ballads 1800)
(i) Lucy Gray (c. Nov.)
(ii) Strange Fits of Passion I Have Known (c. Dec.)	13	(1)
(iii) She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways (c. Dec.)	14	(1)
(iv) A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal (c. Dec.)	14	(1)
(v) Three Years She Grew (Feb.)	15	(1)
7. THOMAS CAMPBELL: Hohenlinden (18m; publ. 1809)	16	(1)
8. ROBERT SOUTHEY: The Inchcape Rock (1803)	17	(2)
9. WILLIAM BLAKE: And Did Those Feet (1802-4; engraved Milton c. 1808)	19	(1)
10. WALTER SCOTT: Lochinvar (Marmion 1808)	20	(1)
11. THOMAS MOORE: Oh! Blame Not the Bard (1810)	21	(1)
12. LORD BYRON: 'Revelry by Night' (Childe Harold III, stanzas 16-18, 21-8) April 1816; publ. Dec.	22	(3)
13. JOHN KEATS: To Autumn (Sept. 1819; publ. 1820)	25	(1)
14. PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY: To a Skylark (1820)	26	(3)
15. JAMES HOGG: When the Kye Comes Hame (1823)	29	(2)
16. JOHN CLARE: The Shepherd's Calendar (July, 90-131) c. 1824; publ. 1827	31	(1)
17. THOMAS HOOD: I Remember, I Remember (1826)	32	(1)
18. FELICIA HEMANS: Casabianca (1824; publ. 1826)	33	(2)
19. LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON: Lines of Life (1829)	35	(3)
20. CAROLINE NORTON: My Arab Steed (1830)	38	(1)
21. JAMES LEIGH HUNT: Abou Ben Adhem (1834)	39	(1)
II. Narratives of Love	40	(100)
1. MARY ROBINSON: from Sappho and Phaon (1796)	41	(11)
2. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH: The Ruined Cottage (1797-8; Excursion 1814 from MS 1968)	52	(12)
3. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE: Love (Nov. 1799; publ. 1817)	64	(3)
4. WILLIAM BLAKE:
(i) The Crystal Cabinet (c. 1803; from MS 1905)	67	(1)
(ii) The Mental r (c. 1803; from MS 1905)	68	(3)
5. MARY TIGHE: 'A Glimpse of Love' (Psyche I, stanzas 16-32) 1802-3; publ. 1805	71	(5)
6. THOMAS CAMPBELL: Gertrude of Wyoming II (1869)	76	(6)
7. LORD BYRON: The Bride of Abydos (stanzas 22-7) 1814	82	(5)
8. PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY: Alastor (lines 140-222) 1816	87	(2)
9. JAMES LEIGH HUNT: Paulo and Francesca (Rimini lines 482564) 1816	89	(3)
10. THOMAS MOORE: The Fire-Worshippers (from Lalla Rookh III, lines 201-453) 1817	92	(7)
11. JOHN KEATS: The Eve qf St Agn (Jan. Feb. 1819; publ. 1820)	99	(11)
12. LORD BYRON: Juan and Haidee (from Don Juan II-IV) 1819-21	110	(19)
13. LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON: The Indian Bride (Improvisatrice 1823)	129	(2)
14. FELICIA HEMANS: Arabella Stuart (Records of Woman 1828)	131	(7)
15. CAROLINE NORTON: The Faithless Knight (1830)	138	(2)
III. Romantic Solitude, Suffering and Endurance	140	(106)
1. WILLIAM COWPER: Crazy Kate (Task 534-56) 1785	141	(1)
2. JOANNA BAILLIE: The Storm-Beat Maid (1790)	142	(5)
3. CHARLOTTE SMITH: The Female Exile (Nov. 1792; publ. 1797)	147	(1)
4. WILLIAM BLAKE: Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1793)	148	(6)
5. ROBERT SOUTHEY: Mary the Maid of the Inn (1797)	154	(3)
6. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH: Wordsworthian Solitaries
(i) Old Man Travelling (May 1797; Lyrical Ballads 1798)	157	(1)
(ii) The Discharged Soldier (Feb. 1798; publ. 1850/from MS 1970)	157	(5)
(iii) The Mad Mother (Lyrical Ballads 1798)	162	(2)
(iv) Complaint of a Forsaken Indian Woman (Lyrical Ballads 1798)	164	(3)
(v) Michael (lines 217-490) Lyrical Ballads 1800	167	(6)
(vi) The Leech-Gatherer (spring 1802; publ. 1807)	173	(4)
(vii) The London Beggar (1805 Prelude VII, 594-622) publ. 1850/ from MS 1926	177	(1)
7. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE: 'Alone, Alone'
(i) The Ancient Mariner (Lyrical Ballads 1798)	178	(19)
(ii) Pains of Sleep (Sept. 1803; publ. 1816)	197	(2)
8. THOMAS CAMPBELL: Lord Ullin's Daughter (1809)	199	(1)
9. MARY BRYAN: The Visit (lines 45-126) 1815	200	(2)
10. LORD BYRON: The Prisoner of Chillon (1816)	202	(10)
11. JOHN KEATS: Isabella, or The Pot of Basil (stanzas 32-63) April 1818; publ. 1820	212	(8)
12. PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY: Final Moments (The Cenci V, scenes iii-iv) 1819	220	(8)
13. LORD BYRON: The Shipwreck (from Don Juan II) 1819	228	(6)
14. THOMAS HOOD: The Dream of Eugene Aram (1826)	234	(6)
15. FELICIA HEMANS: Indian Woman's Death Song (Records of Woman 1828)	240	(2)
16. LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON: She Sat Alone Beside Her Hearth (c. 1835; publ. 1839)	242	(4)
IV. Ennobling Interchange: Man and Nature	246	(78)
1. ANNA LAETITIA BARBAULD:
(i) The Mouse's Petition (1773)	248	(2)
(ii) from A Su miner's Evening's Meditation (lines 17-98) 1773	250	(2)
2. WILLIAM COWPER: The Winter Evening (Task IV, 267-332) 1785	252	(2)
3. ROBERT BURNS: To a Mouse, On Turning Her up in Her Nest with the Plough, November 1785 (1786)	254	(1)
4. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE: Conversation Poems
(i) The Eolian Harp (2o Aug. 1795; publ. 1796)	255	(2)
(ii) This Lime-Tree Bower, My Prison (July 1797; publ. 1800)	257	(2)
(iii) Frost at Midnight (Feb. 1798; publ. 1798)	259	(2)
(iv) The Nightingale (May 1798; publ. Lyrical Ballads)	261	(3)
5. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH: 'Images of a Mighty Mind'
(i) Tintern Abbey (13 July 1798; publ. Lyrical Ballads)	264	(4)
(ii) There Was a Boy (Oct. 1798; publ. Lyrical Ballads 1800)	268	(1)
(iii) The Two-Part Prelude (Oct. 1798-Dec. 1799; publ. 1850/from MS 1972)	269	(23)
(iv) Statue Horse (Feb. 1804; from MS 1969)	292	(1)
(v) Climbing of Snowdon (1805 Prelude XIII, 10-73) Fel). 1804; publ. 1850/from MS 1926	292	(2)
(vi) Crossing the Alps (1805 Prelude VI, 494-572) March 1804; publ. 1850/from MS 1926	294	(2)
6. WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES: from Coombe Ellen (1798)	296	(1)
7. CHARLOTTE SMITH: Beachy Head (lines 346-505) c. 1805; publ. 1807	297	(3)
8. AMELIA OPIE: Stanzas Written Under Aeolus' Harp (1808)	300	(1)
9. ISABELLA LICKBARROW: On Esthwaite Water (1814)	301	(2)
10. LORD BYRON: 'Concentred in a Life Intense'
(i) Lake Leman (from Childe Harold III) June 1816; publ. Dec. 1817	303	(3)
(ii) Epistle to Augusta (July 1816; publ. 1830)	306	(4)
11. PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY: 'The Secret Strength of Things'
(i) Mont Blanc (July 1816; publ. 1817)	310	(3)
(ii) To Jane: The Invitation (2 Feb. 1822; publ. 1824)	313	(2)
(iii) To Jane: A Recollection (Feb. 1822; publ. 1824)	315	(2)
12. JOHN KEATS: 'A Sort of Oneness'
(i) Endymion (I, 777-802) c. April 1817; publ. 1818	317	(1)
(ii) Epistle to H. Reynolds (lines 82-105) March 1818; publ. 1848	318	(1)
13. SAMUEL PALMER: Twilight Time (lines 1-24) c. 1827; from MS 1942	319	(1)
14. JOHN CLARE: This Leaning Tree with Ivy Overhung (early 1830's; from MS 1979)	320	(1)
15. FELICIA HEMANS: Remembrance of Nature (1835; publ. 1838)	321	(1)
16. LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON:
(i) Scale Force, Cumberland (c. 1836; publ. 1839)	322	(1)
(ii) Fountains Abbey (c. 1836; publ. 1839)	323	(1)
V. Romantic Odes	324	(27)
1. ROBERT BURNS: Despondency, An Ode (1786)	325	(2)
2. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH: The Immortality Ode (spring 1802/Feb. 1804; publ. 1807)	327	(5)
3. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE: Dejection: An Ode (summer 1802; publ. 4 Oct.)	332	(4)
4. PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY: Hymn to Intellectual Beauty (July 1816; publ. Jan. 1817)	336	(3)
5. JOHN KEATS: Odes of Spring 1819 (publ. 1820)
(i) Ode to Psyche (late April)	339	(2)
(ii) Ode to a Nightingale (early May)	341	(2)
(iii) Ode on a Grecian Urn (May)	343	(1)
(iv) Ode on Melancholy (May)	344	(1)
(v) Ode on Indolence (late May)	345	(2)
6. PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY: Ode to the West Wind (Oct. 1819; publ. 1820)	347	(4)
VI. Romantic Lyric and Song	351	(68)
1. WILLIAM BLAKE: Song (How sweet I roamed') Poetical Sketches 1783	354
2. ROBERT BURNS: Songs 1786-	-93	(451)
(i) It Was upon a Lammas Night (1786)	355	(1)
(ii) The Banks o' Doon (March 1791; publ. 1808)	356	(1)
(iii) A Red Red Rose (collected 1793; publ. 1794)	357	(1)
3. WILLIAM BLAKE: from Songs of Innocence (1784-9; engraved 1789)
(i) Introduction	358	(1)
(ii) The Shepherd	358	(1)
(iii) Infant Joy	359	(1)
(iv) The Echoing Green	359	(1)
(v) Laughing Song (May 1784)	360	(1)
(vi) Nurse's Song (c. 1784)	360	(1)
(vii) Holy Thursday (c. 1784)	361	(1)
(viii) The Lamb	361	(1)
(ix) The Chimney Sweeper	362	(1)
(x) The Divine Image	363	(1)
4. SUSANNA BLAMIRE:	363	(2)
(i) The Siller Croun (1790; publ. 1842)	363	(1)
(ii) Oh Bid Me Not to Wander (c. 1792; pubs. 1842)	364	(1)
5. WILLIAM BLAKE: from Songs of Experience (1791-2; engraved 1794)
(i) Introduction (c. 1794)	365	(1)
(ii) Earth's Answer (c. 1794)	365	(1)
(iii) My Pretty Rose Tree	366	(1)
(iv) The Clod and the Pebble	366	(1)
(v) The Garden of Love	367	(1)
(vi) A Poison Tree	367	(1)
(vii) Infant Sorrow	368	(1)
(viii) London	368	(1)
(ix) Nurse's Song	369	(1)
(x) The Tyger	369	(1)
(xi) The Human Abstract	370	(1)
(xii) The Sick Rose	371	(1)
(xiii) The Chimney Sweeper	371	(1)
(xiv) Holy Thursday	371	(1)
(xv) The Fly	372	(1)
(xvi) Ah! Sun-Flower (written c. 1794)	373	(1)
6. ANN BATTEN CRISTALL: Through Springtime Walks (1795)	373	(1)
7. MARY ROBINSON: A Thousand Torments (1797)	374	(1)
8. THOMAS CAMPBELL: Written on Visiting a Scene in Argyleshire (c. 1798; publ. 1800)	375	(1)
9. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH:
I. Alfoxden Lyric (1798; publ. Lyrical Ballads) Lines Written in Early Spring	376	(1)
II. Goslar Lyrics (1798-9; publ. Lyrical Ballads 1800)	377	(4)
(i) Two April Mornings	377	(1)
(ii) The Fountain	378	(3)
III. Grasmere Lyrics (spring 1802; publ. Poems 1807)
(i) To the Cuckoo	381	(1)
(ii) The Rainbow	382	(1)
(iii) To H.C., Six Years Old	382	(1)
(iv) The Cock is Crowing	383	(1)
(v) To a Butterfly ('I've watched you')	383	(1)
(vi) I Have Thoughts that Are Fed by the Sun (from MS 1947)	384	(1)
(vii) The Sun Has Long Been Set	385	(1)
IV. Grasmere Lyrics (1804-5; publ. Poems 1807)
(i) Daffodils (Feb. 1804, expanded c. 1815)	385	(1)
(ii) Stepping Westward	386	(1)
(iii) The Solitary Reaper	387	(1)
10. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE: Lyrics 1798-1803
(i) Something Childish, but Very Natural (April 1799; publ. 1800)	388	(1)
(ii) The Keepsake (1802)	388	(1)
(iii) Answer to a Child's (bastion (1802)	389	(1)
11. THOMAS MOORE: Away with this Pouting (1801)	390	(1)
12. CHARLOTTE SMITH: A Walk by the Water (1804)	391	(1)
13. MARY TIGHE: Address to My Harp (c. 1804; publ. 1811)	391	(2)
14. DOROTHY WORDSWORTH: A Cottage in Grasmere Vale (c. 1805; from MS 1882)	393	(1)
15. JANE TAYLOR: The Star (1806)	394	(1)
16. LORD BYRON: Lyrics Early and Late
(i) The Maid of Athens (c. Jan. 1810; publ. 1812)	395	(1)
(ii) She Walks in Beauty (June 1814; publ. 1815)	396	(1)
(iii) Stanzas for Music ('There be none of Beauty's daughters') 1816	396	(1)
(iv) Stanzas for Music ('There's not a joy') 1816	397	(1)
(v) We'll Go No More A-Roving (28 Feb. 1817; publ. 1830)	397	(1)
(vi) The Isles of Greece (Don Juan, Canto III, 86-7) 1821	398	(2)
(vii) On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year (22 Jan. 1824; publ. 1824)	400	(2)
17. PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY: Lyric Poetry 1817-21
(i) To Constantia, Singing (late 1817; publ. Jan. 1818)	402	(1)
(ii) Stanzas Written in Dejection, December 1818, Near Naples (publ. 1824)	403	(1)
(iii) The Cloud (1820)	404	(2)
(iv) Hellas: The Last Chorus (Oct. 1821; publ. 1822)	406	(2)
(v) Music, When Soft Voices Die (c. 1821; publ. 1824)	408	(1)
18. JOHN KEATS: Lyrics 1818-19
(i) Where Be Ye Going (21 March 1818; publ. 1848)	408	(1)
(ii) The Witching Time (14 Oct. 1818; publ. 1848)	409	(1)
(iii) I Had a Dove (c. Dec. 1818; publ. 1848)	410	(1)
(iv) Hush, Hush! Tread Softly (c. Dec. 1818; publ. 1845)	410	(1)
(v) This Living Hand (c. Nov. 1819; from MS 1898)	411	(1)
19. JOHN CLARE: Song (Sad was the day') 1820	411	(1)
20. THOMAS HOOD: Ruth (1827)	412	(1)
21. CHARLES LAMB:
(i) To Louisa Martin, Whom I Used to Call 'Monkey' (1827)	413	(1)
(ii) In My Own Album (1829)	413	(1)
22. LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON: Song: 'My heart is like the failing hearth' (1827)	414	(1)
23. FELICIA HEMANS:
(i) The Graves of a Household (1828)	415	(1)
(ii) A Parting Song (1828)	416	(1)
24. CAROLINE NORTON: Dreams (1830)	417	(1)
25. JAMES HOGG: When Maggy Gangs Away (1831)	417	(2)
VII. The Romantic Sonnet	419	(28)
1. THOMAS WARTON: To the River Loden (1777)	421	(1)
2. CHARLOTTE SMITH: from Elegiac Sonnets, 1784
(i) The Partial Muse	422	(1)
(ii) Should the Lone Wanderer	422	(1)
3. WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES: from Fourteen Sonnets, 1789
(i) At a Village in Scotland	423	(1)
(ii) To the River Itchin	423	(1)
4. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE:
(i) Pantisocracy (1794)	424	(1)
(ii) To the River Otter (1796)	424	(1)
5. MARY ROBINSON: from Sappho and Phaon (1796)
(i) Sappho Conjectures	425	(1)
(ii) Her Address to the Moon	426	(1)
(iii) To Phaon	426	(1)
6. CHARLES LAMB: When Last I Roved (1797)	427	(1)
7. ROBERT SOUTHEY: To a Brook Near the Village of Corston (1797)	427	(1)
8. CHARLES LLOYD: On the Death of Priscilla Farmer (1797)	428	(1)
9. ANNA SEWARD: By Derwent's Rapid Stream (1799)	428	(1)
10. MARY TIGHE: Written at Scarborough (1799)	429	(1)
11. CHARLOTTE SMITH: from Elegiac Sonnets, 1799
(i) Written at the Close of Spring	429	(1)
(ii) From the Thirteenth Cantata of Metastasio	430	(1)
(iii) To the Earl of Egremont	430	(1)
12. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH: Sonnets of 1802 (publ. 1807)
(i) I Grieved for Bonaparte (21 May)	431	(1)
(ii) With Ships the Sea Was Sprinkled	431	(1)
(iii) Westminster Bridge (3 Sept.)	432	(1)
(iv) Milton, Thou Shouldst Be Living at this Hour	432	(1)
(v) The World Is Too Much with Us	432	(1)
(vi) Ere We Had Reached the Wished-for Place (4 Oct.)	433	(1)
(vii) Nuns Fret Not	433	(1)
(viii) Scorn Not the Sonnet (c. 1802; publ. 1827)	434	(1)
13. MARY TIGHE: To Death (c. 1805; publ. 1811)	434	(1)
14. JAMES LEIGH HUNT: Sonnets, 1814-18
(i) Written During the Author's Imprisonment, November 1814 (Examiner)	435	(1)
(ii) Written in the Spring that Succeeded Imprisonment, May 1815 (Examiner)	435	(1)
(iii) On a Lock of Milton's Hair ( Jan. 1818, Examiner)	436	(1)
15. MARY BRYAN: To My Brother (1815)	436	(1)
16. LORD BYRON: Sonnets Written at the Villa Diodati, July 1816
(i) Sonnet on Chillon (1816)	437	(1)
(ii) Sonnet to Lake Leman (1816)	437	(1)
17. JOHN KEATS: Sonnets of 1816-19
(i) On First Looking into Chapman's Homer (Oct. 1816; publ. Dec.)	438	(1)
(ii) Great Spirits Now on Earth are Sojourning (19-20 Nov. 1816; publ. 1817)	438	(1)
(iii) To Mrs Reynolds' Cat (16 Jan. 1818; publ. 1830)	439	(1)
(iv) On Sitting Down to Read 'King Lear' Once Again (22 Jan. 1818; pub!. 1838)	439	(1)
(v) When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be (late Jan. 1818; publ. 1848)	440	(1)
(vi) Bright Star (autumn 1819; publ. 1838)	440	(1)
18. HORACE SMITH: In Egypt's Sandy Silence (Dec. 1817; publ. 1 Feb. 1818)	441	(1)
19. PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY:
(i) Ozymandias (Dec. 1817; publ. 11 Jan. 1818)	441	(1)
(ii) Lift Not the Painted Veil (late 1819; publ. 1824)	442	(1)
20. JOHN CLARE:
(i) Give Me the Gloomy Walk (1819-20; publ. 1820)	442	(1)
(ii) A Wish (1819-20; publ. 1828)	443	(1)
21. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH: The River Duddon: Afterthought (1820)	443	(1)
22. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE: To Nature (1820)	444	(1)
23. THOMAS HOOD: Written in Keats"Endymion' (London Magazine 1823)	444	(1)
24. HARTLEY COLERIDGE: Long Time a Child (1833)	445	(1)
25. FELICIA HEMANS: To a Distant Scene (1834)	445	(1)
26. CAROLINE NORTON: Be Frank with Me (1830)	446	(1)
27. LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON: The Castle of Chillon (1835)	446	(1)
VIII. The Gothic and Surreal	447	(83)
1. WILLIAM BLAKE: Fair Elenor (Poetical Sketches 1783)	448	(3)
2. HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS: Part of an Irregular Fragment Found in a Dark Passage of the Tower (1786)	451	(1)
3. ROBERT BURNS: Tam 0' Shanter (late 1790; publ. 1791)	452	(7)
4. GOTTFRIED BURGER (trans. WILLIAM TAYLOR, 1796):
(i) Lenora	459	(7)
(ii) The Lass of Fair Wone	466	(6)
5. MATTHEW 'MONK' LEWIS: Alonzo the Brave and the Fair Imogine (1796)	472	(2)
6. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH: The Thorn (March 1798; publ. Lyrical Ballads)	474	(7)
7. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE: Christabel, Part I (April 1798; publ. 1816)	481	(7)
8. ROBERT SOUTHEY: The Old Woman of Berkeley (1799)	488	(5)
9. MARY ROBINSON: The Haunted Beach (1800)	493	(3)
10. WALTER SCOTT: The Lay of the Last Minstrel (Canto II, stanzas 1-23) 1805	496	(7)
11. JAMES HOGG: The Wife of Crowle (1807)	503	(2)
12. GEORGE CRABBE: Peter Grimes (1810)	505	(6)
13. LORD BYRON: pri/k/te ss (1816)	511	(5)
14. JOHN KEATS: La Belle Dame Sans Merci (21 April 1819; Indicator, May 1820)	516	(2)
15. JOHN CLARE: Superstition's Dream (lines 13-68 1822	518	(1)
16. THOMAS LOVELI. BEDDOES: The Bride's Tragedy II, scene iv, lines 1-64 (1822)	519	(2)
17. THOMAS CAMPBELL: The Last Man (1823)	521	(2)
18. THOMAS HOOD: The Last Man (1826; publ. 1829)	523	(7)
IX. Romantic Comedy and Satire	530	(87)
1. WILLIAM BLAKE: Songs from An Island in the Moon (c. 1784; from MS 1907)
(i) Old Corruption	532	(1)
(ii) Lo, the Bat	533	(1)
(iii) Village Cricket	534	(1)
2. ROBERT BURNS: Holy Willie's Prayer (1786)	534	(4)
3. MARY ROBINSON: January, 1795 (publ. 1796)	538	(1)
4. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH: Ballad Comedies, Spring 1798:
(i) The Idiot Boy (late March; publ. Lyrical Ballads)	539	(13)
(ii) from Peter Bell (late April; publ. 1819)	552	(3)
(iii) We Are Seven (late April/early May; publ. Lyrical Ballads)	555	(2)
5. JOHN HOOKHAM FRERE AND GEORGE CANNING: from The Rovers (June 1798)	557	(2)
6. ROBERT SOUTHEY AND SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE: The Devil's Thoughts (1799)	559	(2)
7. GEORGE CRABBE: Procrastination (1812)	561	(8)
8. JAMES SMITH: The Baby's Debut, by W.W. (Rejected Addresses 1812)	569	(3)
9. JAMES HOGG: from The Poetic Mirror (1816)
(i) James Rigg (lines 1-42)	572	(1)
(ii) Isabelle	573	(1)
10. JOHN HOOKHAM FRERE: irrational Gigantic Anger' (Whistlecraft, Canto III, stanzas 1-7, 15-19) 1818	574	(3)
11. JOHN KEATS: Old Meg She Was a Gypsy (2 July 1818; publ. 1838)	577	(1)
12. PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY: Sin (Peter Bell the Third IV, 1-65) 1819; publ. 1839	578	(2)
13. LORD BYRON: Juan and Julia (Don Juan I, stanzas 54-117, 133-87) 1819	580	(27)
14. ROBERT SOUTHEY: The Cataract of Lodore (1823)	607	(3)
15. THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK: The Legend of Manor Hall (c. 1824; publ. 1837)	610	(4)
16. THOMAS HOOD: Mary's Ghost (1826)	614	(2)
17. CAROLINE NORTON: First Love (1830)	616	(1)
X. Protest and Politics	617	(65)
1. WILLIAM COWPER: Sweet Meat Has Sour Sauce (1788)	619	(1)
2. HANNAH MORE: from Slavery: A Poem (1788)	620	(2)
3. ANN YEARSLEY: Death of Luco (from On the Inhumanity of the Slave Trade) 1788	622	(2)
4. ANNA LAETITIA BARBAULD: On the Expected General Rising of the French Nation in 1792 (publ. 1825)	624	(1)
5. HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS: France 1792 (from To Dr Moore) 1792	625	(1)
6. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH: The Female Vagrant, stanzas 33-6, 40-43 (1793-4; publ. Lyrical Ballads 1798)	626	(3)
7. ROBERT BURNS: For A' That and A' That (1795)	629	(1)
8. ROBERT SOUTHEY: Poems on the Slave Trade (April 1798; publ. 1799)	630	(1)
9. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE:
(i) France: An Ode (1798)	631	(2)
(ii) 'Dainty Terms for Fratricide' (Fears in Solitude, 90-93, 101-20) 1798	633	(1)
10. ROBERT SOUTHEY: The Battle of Blenheim (1799)	634	(2)
11. ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: The Farmer's Boy (from Summer) 1801	636	(1)
12. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH:
I. Sonnets 1802 (publ. 1807)
(i) On the Extinction of the Venetian Republic	637	(1)
(ii) To Toussaint L'Ouverture	638	(1)
(iii) We Had a Fellow-Passenger	638	(1)
II. Prelude Scenes from the French Revolution (1804; publ. 1850/ from MS 1926)
(i) 'Golden Hours': Calais and the Rhone, July 1790 (VI, 352-69, 380-413)	639	(1)
(ii) A Tourist's Unconcern: Paris, Dec. 1791 (IX, 40-71)	640	(1)
(iii) Among Royalists: Blois, spring 1792 (IX, 127-68)	641	(1)
(iv) 'A Patriot': Blois, early summer 1792 (IX, 294-9, 511-34)	642	(1)
(v) 'Sleep No More': Paris, Oct. 1792 (X, 24-82)	643	(1)
(vi) War and Alienation: London and Wales, 1793-4 (X, 201-74)	644	(2)
(vii) 'Eternal Justice': Morecambe Sands, Aug. 1794 (X, 466-76, 515-56)	646	(2)
13. JOHN CLARE:
(i) Helpstone (hues 95-134) c. 1813; publ. 1820	648	(1)
(ii) Lamentations of Round-Oak Waters (lines 157-96) 1818; publ. 1821	649	(1)
14. JAMES LEIGH HUNT: from St lames's Phenomenon (1814)	650	(1)
15. LORD BYRON: Napoleon's Farewell (1814; publ. 1816)	651	(1)
16. PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY: :
(i) The Mask of Anarchy (Sept. 1819; publ. 1932)	652	(10)
(ii) England in 1819 (23 Dec.; publ. 1939)	662	(1)
17. LORD BYRON: from The Vision of Judgment (1822)	663	(10)
18. THOMAS HOOD: Ode to H. Bodkin, Esq., Secretary to the Society for the Suppression of Mendicity (1824)	673	(2)
19. LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON: Factory (1835)	675	(3)
20. CAROLINE NORTON: A Voice from the Factories (stanzas 34-48) 1836	678	(4)
XI. Poets in Relationship	682	(72)
1. WILLIAM BLAKE: and Catherine Blake, I Love the Jocund Dance (Poetical Sketches 1783)	684	(1)
2. ROBERT BURNS:
(I) and Elizabeth Paton, A Poet's Welcome to his Love-begotten Daughter (May 1785; publ. 1801)	685	(2)
(II) and Agnes Craif McLehose, Ae Fond Kiss (Dec. 1787; publ. 1792)	687	(1)
(III) and Jean Armour (by now Mrs Burns), I Love My Jean (April 1788; publ. 1790)	687	(1)
(IV) and Mary Campbell, Highland Mary (Nov. 1792; publ. 1799)	688	(1)
3. CHARLOTTE SMITH: To My Children (1788)	689	(1)
4. MARY ROBINSON: and General Sir Banastre Tarleton, Written Between Dover and Calais, July 1792 (1793)	690	(2)
5. WILLIAM COWPER: and Mary Unwin, To Mary (autumn 1793; publ. 1803)	692	(2)
6. CHARLES LAMB: To Mary Ann Lamb (1795; publ. 1797)	694	(1)
7. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE:
(i) Composed on a Journey Homeward, the Author Having Received Intelligence of the Birth of a Son, September 20, 1796 (1797)	694	(1)
(ii) Letter to Sara Hutchinson: 4 April 1802, Sunday Evening (from MS 1936)	695	(9)
8. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH:
(I) and Dorothy Wordsworth
(i) To My Sister (March 1798; publ. Lyrical Ballads 1798)	704	(1)
(ii) from Home at Grasmere (March 1800; publ. from MS 1888)	705	(2)
(iii) To a Butter fly (Stay near me') spring 1802; publ. 1807	707	(1)
(iv) The Sparrow's Nest (spring 1802; publ. 1807)	707	(1)
(v) 'Child of My Parents' (1805 Prelude XIII 210-46) publ. 1850/ from MS 1926	708	(1)
(II) and Caroline (Vallon) Wordsworth, It is a Beauteous Evening (Aug. 1802; publ. 1807)	709	(1)
(III) and Mary Wordsworth (nee Hutchinson)
(i) She Was a Phantom of Delight (Feb. 1804; publ. 1807)	709	(1)
(ii) 'Another Maid There Was' (1805 Prelude VI 233-9, XI 21522) publ. 1850/from MS 1926	710	(1)
(IV) and Catharine Wordsworth, Surprised by Joy (c. 1813-14; publ. 1815)	711	(1)
9. PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY:
(I) and Harriet Shelley (nee Westbrook), To Harriet (1812)	711	(1)
(II) and Mary Shelley (nee Godwin), from Dedication to Laon and Cythna 1-46, 91-126 (1817)	712	(2)
(III) and Teresa Vivian, Epipsychidion (1821)	714	(15)
(IV) and Jane Williams
(i) To Jane with a Guitar (June 1822; publ. 1832)	729	(2)
(ii) To Jane: The Stars Were Twinkling (June 1822; publ. 1832)	731	(1)
10. LORD BYRON:
(I) and Lady Frances Webster, When We Two Parted (Aug.-Sept. 1815; publ. 1816)	732	(1)
(II) and Lady Byron, Fare Thee Well (1816)	733	(2)
(III) and Augusta Leigh
(i) Stanzas to Augusta ('When all around') 1816	735	(2)
(ii) Stanzas to Augusta (Though the day of my destiny') 1816	737	(1)
(IV) and the Countess Guiccioli, Stanzas to the River Po (April 1819; publ. 1824)	738	(2)
(V) and Loukas Chalandritsanos, I Watched Thee (April 1824; from MS 1887)	740	(1)
11. JOHN KEATS: and Fanny Brawne
(i) The Day Is Gone (10 Oct. 1819; publ. 1838)	741	(1)
(ii) I Cry Your Mercy (mid Oct. 1819; publ. 1848)	741	(1)
(iii) Ode to Fanny (Feb. 1820; publ. 1848)	742	(1)
12. JOHN CLARE: and Mary Joyce
(i) Song (Mary leave thy lowly cot') 1819-20; publ. 1821	743	(1)
(ii) My Mary (182o)	744	(3)
(iii) Ballad (Mary, fate lent me a moment') 1819-20; publ. 1821	747	(1)
13. FELICIA HEMANS: The Dreaming Child (1830)	748	(1)
14. CAROLINE NORTON:
(I) and her brother, Recollections (1830)	749	(1)
(II) and her children, The Mothers Heart (1836)	750	(2)
15. LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON: To My Brother (1835)	752	(2)
XII. On Poets and Poetry	754	(69)
1. MARY SCOTT: on Anna Laetitia Barbauld (nee Aikin), from The Female Advocate (1774)	756	(2)
2. ROBERT BURNS:
(i) Epistle to J. Lapraik, An Old Scotch Bard (April 1785; publ. 1786)	758	(2)
(ii) I Am a Bard (c. autumn 1785; publ. 1799)	760	(2)
3. HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS: Sonnet on Reading 'The Mountain Daisy' by Burns (c. 1787; publ. 1791)	762	(1)
4. JOANNA BAILLIE: An Address to the Muses (lines 49-102) 1790	762	(2)
5. WILLIAM BLAKE:
(i) Preface to Europe, A Prophecy (engraved 1794)	764	(1)
(ii) 'I Come In Self-Annihilation' (Milton plate 41, 2-28) c. 1804, engraved c. 1808-10	765	(1)
(iii) 'Trembling I Sit' (Jerusalem, plate 5, 16-20) c. 1804-7; engraved c. 1818	765	(1)
6. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE: Nehemiah Higginbottom Sonnets (Nov. 1797)
(i) 'Pensive at Eve'	766	(1)
(ii) 'Oh I Do Love Thee'	766	(1)
(iii) 'And This Reft House'	767	(1)
7. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH: Thoughts on Poetic Imagination, 1798-1806
(i) from the Prologue to Peter Bell (April 1798; publ. 1819)	767	(4)
(ii) The Glad Preamble (c. 18 Nov. 1799; publ. Prelude 185o/from MS 1926)	771	(1)
(iii) 'A Dedicated Spirit' (1805 Prelude IV 316-45; publ. 185o/from MS 1926)	772	(1)
(iv) Elegiac Stanzas, Suggested by a Picture of Peele Castle in a Storm (May-June 1806; publ. 1807)	773	(2)
8. ANNA LAETITIA BARBAULD: To Mr Coleridge (1799)	775	(1)
9. MARY ROBINSON:
(i) Ode Inscribed to the Infant Son of S.T. Coleridge, Esq., Born 14 Sept 1800 (lines 67-102) Sept 1800; publ. 1806	776	(1)
(ii) To the Poet Coleridge (Oct. 1800; publ. 1806)	777	(2)
10. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH: Portraits of Coleridge	779	(4)
(i) from The Castle of Indolence Stanzas (May 1802; publ. 1807)	779	(1)
(ii) 'A Mind Debarred' (1805 Prelude VI, 239-329) 1804; publ. 1850/from MS 1926	780	(2)
(iii) A Complaint (c. Dec. 1806; publ. 1807)	782	(1)
11. MARY TIGHE: 'Dreams of Delight, Farewell' (Psyche, concluding stanzas) 1802-3; publ. 1805	783	(1)
12. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE: To William Wordsworth (Jan. 1807; publ. 1817)	784	(3)
13. LORD BYRON: English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (lines 1-38, 85148) 1809	787	(2)
14. JAMES LEIGH HUNT: Feast of the Poets (lines 204-41) 1811; expanded 1814	789	(1)
15. LORD BYRON: "Tis to Create' (Childe Harold III, stanzas 3-6) April 1816; publ. 1817	790	(2)
16. PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY: To Wordsworth (1816)	792	(1)
17. JOHN KEATS:	792	(7)
(i) Sleep and Poetry (lines 96-162) 1817	792	(2)
(ii) The Fall of Hyperion: A Dream (Canto I, lines 1-27, 87-294) July-Sept. 1819; 1856	794	(5)
S. PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY:	799	(10)
(i) Julian and Maddalo: A Conversation (lines 1-67) Oct. 1818; publ. 1824	799	(3)
(ii) Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats (stanzas 1-8, :39-58)1822	802	(7)
19. LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON: Sappho's Song (1824)	809	(1)
20. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE: Work Without Hope (21 Feb. 1825; publ. 1828)	809	(1)
21. THOMAS HOOD: False Poets and True (1827)	810	(1)
22. FELICIA HEMANS:
(i) The Grave of a Poetess (Records of Woman 1828)	810	(2)
(ii) Properzia Rossi (Records of Woman 1828)	812	(3)
(iii) To Wordsworth (1828)	815	(1)
23. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH: Extempore Effusion Upon the Death of James Hogg (1835)	816	(2)
24. LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON:
(i) Felicia Hemans (c. 1835; publ. 1838)	818	(2)
(ii) The Poet's Lot (c. 1837; publ. 1841)	820	(3)
NOTES	823	(155)
SHORT BIOGRAPHIES	978	(7)
INDEX OF POETS AND THEIR WORKS	985	(6)
INDEX OF TITLES	991	(6)
INDEX OF FIRST LINES	997

Excerpts

"The world is too much with us"

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune,
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

"The Solitary Reaper"

Behold her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highland Lass!
Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here, or gently pass!
Alone she cuts and binds the grain,
And sings a melancholy strain;
O listen! for the Vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound.

No Nightingale did ever chaunt
More welcome notes to weary bands
Of travellers in some shady haunt,
Among Arabian sands:
A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard
In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas
Among the farthest Hebrides.

Will no one tell me what she sings?--
Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago:
Or is it some more humble lay,
Familiar matter of to-day?
Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,
That has been, and may be again?

Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang
As if her song could have no ending;
I saw her singing at her work,
And o'er the sickle bending;--
I listened, motionless and still;
And, as I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.