The poets profiled in this volume were all born in 1779 or later and wrote most of their important poems between 1800 and 1840. Disillusioned with the failure of the French Revolution and the repressive political atmosphere in England, many poets, including Byron and Shelley, found England to be too confining and left for Italy. The dominant theme that emerges, is the liberation of the human spirit. In addition to addressing the uncertainties of political change--even upheaval--the second generation of British Romantic writers was also conscious of a debt to the preceding generation. They were not, however, content to imitate earlier poets; they felt the need to define themselves as personally, morally, politically or artistically superior to them. 22 entries include: George Gordon, Lord Byron, John Clare, Hartley Coleridge, George Darley, Ebenezer Elliott, Thomas Hood, Leigh Hunt, John Keats, John Herman, Merivale, Thomas Moore, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Henry Kirke White.
