The Form of Poetry in the 1820s and 1830s

David Stewart is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Northumbria University, UK, where he has worked since 2009. He is the author of Romantic Magazines and Metropolitan Literary Culture (Palgrave, 2011), and articles published in journals including Essays in Criticism, Review of English Studies and Studies in English Literature.

1:Introduction.- 2: 'The Genius of the Times': Sales, Forms and Periods.- 3: 'Infinite Profit in a Little Book': Ephemerality and the Annuals.- 4: 'A Labyrinth of Difficulties and Distinctions': Landon, Darley, Browning.- 5: 'A Fatal Gift': Formal Apparitions in Hemans and Beddoes.- 6: 'The Proper Pathetic Face': Hunt, Reynolds, Hood, Praed.- 7: 'A Living Doubt': Clare and Hartley.- 8: 'Conclusion': From Byron to Tennyson.

"David Stewart's The Form of Poetry in the 1820s and 1830s answers a real need: a comprehensive study, as well as survey, of the large number of poets once either obscure or dismissed as rubbish. ... The result in this work is a tour-de-force of research-not only of unearthing less well-known voices, but of interpreting them through a coherent lens." (James Najarian, European Romantic Review, Vol. 30 (4), 2019)
"This thoroughly engaging book shows how literary posterity's awkward burden of 'rescuing' poets like Beddoes, Clare, Darley, and Landon from their perceived obscurity can be transformed into an illuminating discourse of doubt and self-awareness. Stewart helps us to see in these poets' exquisitely accomplished writing a questioning of the present moment, even as it unfolds and takes flight." (Michael Bradshaw, John Clare Society Journal, Issue 37, June, 2018)