who | what | why | background | FAQ | links | email | notify | forum | archive | home The purpose of this site is simple: to chronicle my independent study of the British Romantic poets. In the beginning, I am only concentrating on those who are known around the English Department at my university as "the big Five": Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth, Blake, and Coleridge. My advisor counts Byron, but my Brit Lit prof doesn't, and since I haven't studied Byron yet I'm leaving him off the list for now. I understand that there are many other people considered part of Romanticism; I understand that many people think Romanticism isn't even over now. These are the five who interest me most in these beginning stages, and these are the five I'll concentrate on first. My intent for grad school is to concentrate in the Romantics in some form. Whether or not I go on for a PhD is something I won't decide for several years; my M.A. pursuit will be part-time only and therefore further decisions are mercifully postponed. My hope is that this site combined with the next few semesters of study will show me a clearer path. I plan to discuss specific poems - parts of poems - the lives of poets - the world they lived in. Whatever pops into my mind while I'm studying, really. During the semester (September - December 2002) I expect my entries will largely spring from the class I am taking in the Romantics. I also suspect some talk of the GRE may sneak in occasionally; having realized how far behind I am in my studies for it, I've officially begun to panic. It will be foremost in my mind until October.