The years following the American and French Revolutions of 1776 and 1789 saw a matchless flowering of poetry, in which a new mood emerged. Romanticism was an exaltation of the imagination, a celebration of creativity and an expression of feeling in its most elevated form, which is at the root of our modern understanding of nature, beauty and love. Organised by theme and genre, this collection reveals unexpected connections and shared preoccupations and allows us to see the Romantics in a fresh light. Thus Blake, Wordsworth and Shelley appear as masters of comedy; Burns and Byron speak of the relationship between man and nature; and Coleridge, Keats and Clare explore the Gothic and surreal. And the acknowledged genius of Blake's 'Tyger', Coleridge's 'Kubla Khan' and Shelley's 'Ozymandias' is set alongside verse from less familiar figures, including a strong representation of women poets, among them Charlotte Smith, Felicia Hemans and Letitia Elizabeth Landon.