THE Six British Poets presented alphabetically in this volume have often formed the subjects of Special Public Lectures or University Extension Courses in England, in Ulster, and in the United States. These Lectures were first published separately, and are here bound together to retain a more permanent form-These Poets have been called "British Poets of the Revolution Age," because they all belong to that great band of singers who lived and wrote during the revolutionary period covering the restless times of Napoleon Buonaparte. First came the Revolution in America in 1776; then the great Revolution in France in 1789 was followed in 1798 by the Irish Rebellion, which might also be called a Revolution, for it was so far successful that in 1801 Ireland's voice was first heard in the Imperial Parliament, and in 1829 was passed the Emancipation of the Irish Catholics. The Revolution in Greece, aided largely by Lord Byron, ended in Grecian Independence in 1828. Belgium also gained autonomy, in 1830; and Germany and Italy then began the struggles which terminated in their present unity and power. The same revolutionary age put an end to the English sovereigns' meddling in politics, and to the oligarchy of Whig aristocrats in Parliament. This world-wide spirit of freedom and emancipation finds expression in the English, Scotch, and Irish Poets of the age, as well as in the Poets of all other nations, and it is re-echoed directly and indirectly in the six Poets briefly presented in this volume. W. CLARKE ROBINSON. BELFAST, 1900. |