Romantic Poetry and Literary Coteries

Abstract

"How does Romantic poetry read if seen as the product of social authorship--the group language of coteries of writers, editors, publishers and critics--rather than as a series of verbal icons--original lyrics and romances composed by individual geniuses? Romantic Poetry and Literary Coteries explores Romanticism as a discourse characterized by tropes and forms that were jointly produced by literary circles - writing communities - in self-conscious opposition to prevailing social and political values and in deliberate differentiation from the normal practices of contemporary print culture. Among the tropes examined are allusion and borrowing; among the forms discussed are blank-verse effusions, political squibs, magazine essays, millenarian prophecies, long-form notebook verse, illustrated tour poems and prose journals. Coteries considered include the Southey/Coleridge circle, including Bowles, Cottle, Cowper, Lamb, Lloyd, Robinson and Wordsworth; the Bloomfield circle, including Capel Lofft and Thomas Hood; the Clare circle, including Byron, Cowper, William Knight and John Taylor; the Cockneys, including Richard Brothers, William Bryan, De Quincey, Hood, Leigh Hunt, Robert Mudie, Patmore"--