Lake Poets were William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey. They were so named by the Edinburgh Review in 1817 because they lived in the Lake District of northwestern England. Each of them had become politically conservative, but otherwise they shared only a dislike of the stuffy, formal poetry that was common in their time. They cultivated a simple style of verse, using realistic speech patterns. Originally, the term Lake Poets was applied scornfully both by the Edinburgh Review and by poet Lord Byron, who disapproved of the writers’ rejecting their earlier liberal ideals. Now, however, the term is purely descriptive.
Loading the player...Epigram by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Wordsworth celebrated spiritual experience in the natural world. He wrote many poems about humble people and familiar objects, using conversational language. Coleridge was more philosophical and more visionary. His writing included commentaries on Shakespeare and other works of critical theory. Southey was less talented as a writer than Wordsworth and Coleridge. He wrote tales in verse as well as history.
