Romantic poets

The onset of the French Revolution in 1789 and subsequent war between England and France (1803-1815), was a catalyst for a group of poets to retreat into their inner feelings and imagination. As Napoleon swept across Europe, poets responded to changing political and social conditions, placing intuition over reason and the individual over the general. Favouring the pastoral instead of the urban and drawing on their inner visions, the Romantic poets became recognised as a group surprisingly quickly and included women. The romantic idea of the ephemeral genius, doomed to remain unacknowledged became true for many of the poets, who remained unrecognised in their lifetimes. Many of William Blake's seminal works sold less than 30 copies in his own lifetime. George Gordon Byron was one of the few to achieve fame before his death in 1824. After the end of the war in 1815, many poets fled to the Mediterranean, where travel and exploration became distinct aspects of their lives and artistic output.