A New Kind of Literary Pulse

English poet and satirist, Alexander Pope is one of the most epigrammatic of all English authors. He is also famous for using the heroic couplet.

The Romantic movement has an ambivalent position towards his work: even though Byron admitted he was one of his main influences, Wordsworth thought his style was basically too decadent to be a faithful representation of the human condition.

From a family of skilled laborers and land owners, she ran a school of African American children. In her poems, she tells about her children and the living conditions of African American families following the Civil War.

First ever African-American female poet published, Phillis Wheatley was kidnapped in West Africa when she was 8 years old and brought to Boston on a slave ship. There, she was purchased by a tailor called John Wheatley to be his wife’s servant. The Wheatleys acknowledged Phillis' talents and allowed her to learn to read and write. Her first book was published in London in 1773.

Robert Burns, also known as Bard of Ayrshire, was a Scottish poet and lyricist who is widely regarded as Scotland’s national poet and is still celebrated worldwide. One of his works’ distinctive characteristics is that some of his texts are written in Scottish, others in English or even in a light Scottish dialect. Burns is thought to be the pioneer of the Romantic movement. His ideas were a ... [+]

Thomas Moore was an Irish poet, songwriter, satirist and political propagandist whose espousal of the Catholic cause made him a popular hero amongst the Irish nationalists.
Being a close friend of Lord Byron, he played a leading part in one of the most famous episodes of the Romantic period, in 1824: in order to protect the dead, he and the publisher John Murray decided to burn Byron’s ... [+]

The American writer, essayist, biographer and diplomat, Washington Irving, was called "the first American man of letters". He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". He was among the first American writers to get international fame. As a politician, he advocated writing should become a legitimate profession and argued in favour of stronger bans to ... [+]

English poet, painter and printmaker, William Blake was largely disregarded during his lifetime. However, he is nowadays recognized as the earliest and most original of all Romantic poets.
Blake was unfairly considered mad by his contemporaries for his eccentric views on society. He was politically influenced by the French and American Revolutions and was hostile to almost all forms of ... [+]

William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet. His joint publication with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Lyrical Ballads, helped to launch Romanticism in English literature.
His contact with the French Revolution brought about his interest in the "common" people’s life, troubles and speeches, which were of the utmost importance to his following works.
From 1843 to his death, he was ... [+]