Abstract

Robert Southey (1774-1843) was once a prolific and celebrated writer of the Romantic school. Yet despite spending thirty years as Poet Laureate, Southey's reputation has long been eclipsed by that of his contemporaries, Wordsworth and Coleridge. Research on Southey's later poetry (and the violent responses it provoked at the time of its publication) has been hampered by the lack of a modern critical edition. These four volumes provide fully-edited, meticulously annotated texts of the poems Southey wrote during the latter half of his career. These volumes build upon the critical success of Robert Southey: Poetical Works 1793-1810 and together they form a complete edition of Southey's poetry. Volume 1 will include Southey's shorter poems from 1811-38, as well as a number of earlier poems. Volumes 2-4 constitute the first ever critical edition of the longer poems written and published in the 1810s, 1820s and 1830s, including Roderick: Last of the Goths (1814), a best-selling epic romance. This was a period that was crucial for the forging of his own reputation, and saw him drawn into highly public, increasingly embittered controversies with contemporaries such as Lord Byron and William Hazlitt. This critical edition allows a full reassessment of Southey's work and his significance to Romantic poetry.