who | what | why | background | FAQ | links | email | notify | forum | archive | home I don't remember caring much for the Romantics in high school. Actually - to be truthful - I don't remember if we studied them at all. I remember studying Eliot (T.S., thank you very much) and Wallace Stevens and Robert Browning, but when I go back through old notes (yes, I keep everything) I find nary a mention of skylarks or daffodils. I suppose I might have encountered them in a lit survey course, but if I did, I guess they didn't grab me. Going into last semester, I knew I was going to be interested in the subject matter and in the class. The class was being taught by the prof who taught the Shakespeare class I'd enjoyed so much in the fall; there were people in my class that I knew so I no longer felt like an ancient returning student; I liked William Blake right away. But I can pinpoint the exact day that the Romantics seized hold of me: 31 January 2002. In my notebook that day I wrote this: Romantics eventually break your heart - there's a turning away from optimism - with "Ode," Wordsworth turns away - turns to philosophy - this is only a few years away from "Tintern Abbey" Three days later I wrote an entry in my online journal about this turning, this "romantic regret," and in the writing of the entry, I cemented my fascination. The fact that Wordsworth could turn his back so completely on what he had seemingly believed - and the fact that his turning could have such a profound impact on his peers - fascinated me. Fascination became obsession. I'd never taken such careful notes in class before. I rejoiced - no exaggeration - every time I was asked to read aloud, because reading the words of the Romantics was joyful. You may now understand a little of why I have chosen the Romantics - but why, you ask, bring this study to the internet? We moved on from these poets, onto Frankenstein first and then onto other poets like Browning and Tennyson, but it was too late for me. I had but two hands and I had promised them both to two Williams, a Samuel, a Percy and a John. The only way to continue my obsession would be through independent study. My desire for independent study led me to conversations with my advisor and with my prof, which led me to the decision to go to grad school. Contingent on my acceptance, I plan to concentrate in the Romantics - but in the meantime, I am still reading and learning on my own. I have books of criticism and biographies of poets and all of Wordsworth's Prelude, plus the totally unnecessary class in the Romantics that I'm signed up for this fall. I hope that chronicling my studies here, online, will keep me current. Busy. Honest, perhaps. I hope that this site may bring me people to talk with. People to argue with. I hope that may be why some of you are here.