Kinna

Oh my! Reading the Romantics

Readers of this blog know that I love poetry.  I feature one poem a week.  There is really no method that dictates the choice.  I try to spread the adoration around as many diverse poets as possible.  The common thread among the poems is that they move me.  I should want to reread them over and over again.

Well, there is going to be more than the usual poetic fare from this October 1st through to December 23rd.  I’ve signed up to Adam of Roof Beam Reader‘s Reading the Romantics project. He has formally named the read-a-long, Autumn Adventures.  I don’t get any autumn in these parts; it’s summer all year round in Ghana :).  But definitely, an adventure it will be. Below are the poets we’ll read and the proposed schedule:

The Poets:
Blake (1757-1827)
Shelley (1772-1822)
Coleridge (1772-1834)
Byron (1788-1824)
Keats (1795-1821)
Wordsworth (1770-1850)

The Reading Time Line:
Blake: October 1st – October 14th
Shelley: October 15th – October 28th
Coleridge: October 29th – November 11th
Byron: November 12th – November 25th
Keats: November 26th – December 9th
Wordsworth: December 10th – December 23rd

So there will be more than the usual one post per week on poetry.  Brace yourselves!  Now, there are only dead white male guys on the lists, though they are the major Romantic poets.   I might feel more than a little hemmed in :).  I will therefore deviate a  little bit for the list and the schedule to include  English women Romantics poets of the same era and will also feature other non-English romantic poets.  This is going to be a lot of fun. And kudos to Adam for devising this reading project.  I urge you all to join in for part or all of the ride.

8 comments

  1. Oh how I love studying Romantic poetry in my college class on the Romantics! I have a hard time getting to poetry in my regular reading now a days but maybe this is the chance to jump in to it again. Thanks for the heads up about this.

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  3. Woohoo, Kinna. I love the romantics so I shall follow, and maybe read along with you a bit, with interest. Did you see the film Bright star about Keats and Fanny Brawne? BTW I was at a Jane Austen conference in early September – haven’t blogged it but I may yet – and one of the speakers was talking about the issue regarding apothecaries in Regency times. They were the people who eventually became our general practitioners but back then they were pretty lowly and were often not formally qualified. Well, apparently Keats was an apothecary and Byron criticised him for daring to write poetry because only gentlemen could write poetry! Harumph – I know which poet and man I prefer!

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    • No, I haven’t seen the movie but will look out for it. Keats, an apothecary, well who knew. He’s more than a keeper then. Thanks for pointing this out. It might be a good idea for me to delve a little into the bios of these Romantics poets and post any juicy tidbits that I find. I do hope that you follow and read along. BTW, most of the poem, if not all, are available on Project Gutenberg for free.

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      • Thanks Kinna … I don’t think you necessarily need to delve into their lives but it could be fun. Thanks re Project Gutenberg. I do have a lot of my old uni poetry books that need dusting off! But if I’m lazy I’ll go online. I really am quite looking forward to this!

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  4. Oh wow, that is a huge project! I am looking forward to seeing you post on it. I don’t think I have read anything by the romantic poets and that should change.. but I will procrastinate on that specific project 🙂

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    • It’s okay to procrastinate on this one, Iris :). I know that you are embarking on a Sasha’s lovely OWC and NYRB project. Looking forward to following your progress on that one.

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  5. How very fun! I won’t try to read them myself, but I will definitely follow along and enjoy your offerings 🙂

    Oh, and I’m quite jealous that it is always summer there!!!

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