A contemporary of the great poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, Robert Southey (1774-1843) is one of the best known of the unread poets; that is, his name is better known than the work he produced. While his work leans towards the introspection, skepticism, and symbolism that characterize the period, Southey never fully came to fruition as a Romantic poet.

While Southey may not have been a potential Wordsworth or Coleridge, the talent he did posses was not given the concentration of time and energy poetry demands to mature. Because of Southey's financial and personal commitments to his family, he chose to write articles, pamphlets, tales, and light pieces as well as poetry, all within very constricting time limits: "verse took turn and turn about with history, politics, and reviewing: the four last epics were almost entirely written before breakfast," quips Simmons in his 1948 biography of Southey...