Question:
I'm terribly interested to find out the consensus opinion from the intellectual giants on this board on the greatest Romantic poet. You must leave an explanatory response to qualify your answer, preferably with the mention of a specific poem, or indeed, a link to that poem for the benefit of all.

Please make use of the criteria given in the poll, no non-canonical poets allowed - there has been no lasting impression made by the likes of Southey, Hunt, More or Savage on anybody so please let's not go there. And for God's sake, NO WOMEN POETS from this period please.

You may, of course, choose to vote for William Blake. I'm afraid the poll didn't have room for him.

Choices:
Percy Shelley
George Byron
Samuel Coleridge
William Wordsworth
John Keats

 

Interesting thread...

It's always been Shelley for me, as his life's events, actions and experiences made for some really powerful material. Take Ozymandias - it's not particularly long, but still manages a semblance of the epic, dealing with the fall of the mighty, debasing all to the same level. Also - Alastor (Spirit of Solitude) is just so beautiful, playing with notions of the inner and outer landscape to portray a poet tormented by his own demons and somewhat romantic [if you like] expectations.

The thing is, I also love Byron and Blake, but I always just feel something for Shelley, he was a rebel and just damned cool! I'm not big on the female Romantic poets anyway, but the novelists like Mary Shelley, Jane Austen and Ann Radcliffe were where it's at.

Also, you rather terribly sound like you're...ah...extracting the Michael, shall we say. Are you really terribly interested? I could go on...

I'm not pretentious enough to even pretend to have an answer.

Wordsworth is so immensely dull... the Lake school is pretty boring ingeneral, to me.

PBS has always been my favourite poet.

I'm (finally) studying the Romantics at uni at the moment, having taken my degree to study them almost 3 years ago...

Dead Poets Society is as far as I got.

Yes, my degree was nothing more than a foray into pretention - what a fucking waste of time and money, eh?

quote:

Originally posted by Erised:
what a fucking waste of time and money, eh?

Hmm, perhaps you could have quit/changed course?

I really don't care.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Th` Combat Ninja,

What, quitting (ie not paying any more) or changing course (so she was doing something she wanted to do rather than wasting her time)?

It's already too late once the thought has crossed your mind, that's it!

It was a response to Evan's comment, not in any way intended to be literal - I adored my course, and would be doing an MA right now if I had the finances!

Ah, fair enough.

Sorry, I'm just sick of people telling me I'm wasting my time when I'm doing exactly what I want to do on an English degree A bit of a touchy subject for me

quote:

Originally posted by Erised:
Yes, my degree was nothing more than a foray into pretention - what a fucking waste of time and money, eh?

Jesus Christ! You're overly sensitive. My comment had nothing to do with yours! I don't read poetry, let alone Romantic poetry, thus I have no answer, nor am I pretentious enough to even pretend to have an answer. You know the type, the people that have uneducated answer for everything, I see it a lot when people discuss wine or beer, and think they know what they're talking about. In fact, I like that allegory. Let say you're a Viticulturalist par excellence (I am pretentious enough to use french words though), and I'm the shmuck that likes to drink red wine with fish. Obviously I'm not going to start discussing microclimates, Mouton Cadet, or the virtues of screw-top bottels with you. That'd be silly. As silly as me voicing an opinion on Romantic poetry.

In light of the fact that the pretention referred to pretending to have an answer rather than Romantic poetry, I apologise for being snippy...