The Great Romantics: Selected Poems

by Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats, Lord Byron

Selected poems of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Anthologies

1019 pages

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, British romantic poet, include "To a Skylark" in 1820; Prometheus Unbound , the lyric drama; and "Adonais," an elegy of 1821 to John Keats.

The Cenci , work of art or literature of Percy Bysshe Shelley of 1819, depicts Beatrice Cenci, Italian noblewoman.

People widely consider Percy Bysshe Shelley among the finest majors of the English language. He is perhaps most famous for such anthology pieces as Ozymandias , Ode to the West Wind , and The Masque of Anarchy . His major long visionary Alastor , The Revolt of Islam , and the unfinished The Triumph of Life .

Unconventional life and uncompromising idealism of Percy Bysshe Shelley combined with his strong skeptical voice to make an authoritative and much denigrated figure during his life. He became the idol of the next two or three generations, the major Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite Robert Browning, Alfred Tennyson, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Algernon Charles Swinburne, as well as William Butler Yeats and in other languages, such as Jibanananda Das and Subramanya Bharathy . Karl Marx, Henry Stephens Salt, and [authorm:Bertrand Russell] also admired him. Famous for his association with his contemporaries Lord Byron, he also married Mary Shelley, novelist.

Reviews

[Zee · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, this book is insanely long and insanely dense. It was also my first time reading any of these poets, and I can honestly say that if my library system had any other more digestible Lord Byron selection, I wouldn't have attempted this behemoth. As it was I sacked the idea of reading cover to cover when I got to page 84, and decided to be selective with the selected.

What I did get through was really great poetry, but the complete lack of white space and the sheer volume of poetry here is overwhelming. There's no one I know of who could possibly tackle this book all at once. As an anthology, I guess it's nice, but for me, I prefer, ya know, books that are closer to 200 pages than 1,019. Yeah.

[Marv · Rating 4 out of 5]

A favorite for bedtime reading for the children in this family for two generations. Which is likely the reason it will forever be on the currently-reading list. Byron the bad boy did write some mean poetry. No wonder his daughter was the first writer of computer programs.

[Nicole Perkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished 'Endymion' a few days ago. While I'm glad I read it, it will not become a favorite. I am in love with Keats and his sonnets, especially the ones he wrote to Fanny Brawne, but I find that Endymion falls short; it lacks the elegance and finish of his other works.

[James Schwartz · Rating 5 out of 5]

very nice edition with notes.