Close Reading Women Romantic Poets

Women Poets of the Romantic Period 

‘What is a Poet? […] He is a man speaking to men. 

    -  From William Wordsworth’s Preface to Lyrical Ballads

While the major Romantic poets (Wordsworth, Coleridge, Blake, Keats, Shelley, and Byron) are well known, perhaps less familiar are the great women poets of the period: Anna Lætitia Barbauld (1743-1825), Mary Lamb (1764-1847), Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802-38), Mary Robinson (1758-1800), and Charlotte Smith (1749-1806), amongst others.

During the Romantic era (late 18thC and early 19thC), more poetry was being read and more poetry was being written by an increasingly diverse cross-section of society. Women played an important role in this growing poetic culture.

Join us to study some wonderful poems written by women during the Romantic period. Led by Dr Mariah Whelan, students will use close reading techniques to explore the poems themselves and also to ask how they might help to us to question and expand our ideas about literary Romanticism.

Sundays, 18 April and 25 April 2027, live online

14.00-16.00 British Summer Time
15.00-17.00 Central European Summer Time
Morning in the Americas

A selection of the poems we will study:

Charlotte Smith, To The Moon
Mary Robinson, Female Fashions for 1799
Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Washing Day
Dorothy Wordsworth, Address to a Child During a Boisterous Winter Evening
Mary Lamb, Envy
Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Captain Cook (To My Brother) (1820) 

Course fees

£92.00 Full price
£86.00 CAMcard holders
£86.00 Students/Unwaged on a low income

Please note: because these Close Reading courses are mainly group discussion, we do not record the sessions.

Please click on the image below for the booking page.