With a time frame which begins in the same year as the French Revolution, this volume profiles poets born prior to 1779 who wrote most of their important poems between 1789 and 1815. These were years of revolution, war, and great political and social change. The French Revolution and the Napoleonic period are very much a part of the Romantic movement in England, and are reflected in the poetry of the age. This first generation of British Romantic writers was conscious of developing a new aesthetic of poetry, emphasizing imagination, feelings, and the observation of nature. Included at the end of this volume is a selected bibliography that focuses on the most important studies of the historical, social, cultural, aesthetic, linguistic and literary dimensions of British Romantic poetry.

20 entries include: William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Erasmus Darwin, Charles Lamb, Walter Savage Landor, James Montgomery, Samuel Rogers, Sir Walter Scott, Robert Southey, William Wordsworth.