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As well as painters, this period saw a growth in poets and poetry. It was far easier to have written works printed and so far easier for more people to read poetry. It is probably fair to say that many of the poets of this time were the “pop stars” of their day and sometimes their behaviour, compared to that of ordinary people, was just as outrageous.
The poets were known as “The Romantics” but “romantics” doesn't mean the same as we know the meaning of romance. The Romantic Poets were at the very heart of all the change that was happening in society. They had a desire for liberty and hated the way the poor people were exploited, especially in their new working conditions in factories and mines. They felt it was their duty to use their poetry to inspire change in society. Funnily enough, because they could write well, they were often from the higher wealthy class in society.
I think what I will do here is give you a list of these poets and you can decide if you want to look up any of their poems:-
William Blake (1757 - 1827)
William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 - 1834)
Lord Byron (1788 - 1824)
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822)
John Keats (1795 - 1821)
Byron, Shelley and Keats all died very young. You may have actually sung one of the poems written by William Blake which was put to music in 1916 by a man called Sir Hubert Parry. Here it is and note how it refers to “satanic mills”, which some think are the factories of the industrial revolution. It is, as here, often performed at major events.
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