With the advent of democracy, Romantic poets strove to write poems which would make, as Wordsworth said, “the gift of life more valuable and men more worthy of the gift.” But with the advent also of scientific empiricism, the Romantic poets hoped to save the spiritual values of the past. In this course we will read authors who richly expressed the struggles of modern man as he confronted an increasing secularized society, partly welcoming it and partly dismayed by it—Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, and some essayists. This reading group will be led by Professor Anne Hall, a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. We will also look at relevant manuscripts and books in the Rosenbach’s collection.

The Romantic Poets syllabus

This reading group was offered January-May 2011

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