The Writer’s Life

A new book examines the lives of the Romantic poets in their well-intentioned but ultimately ambiguous morality. It is a case of life imitating art, writes Laura Miller for Slate. “This second generation of Romantic poets shaped our contemporary conceptions of creativity and morality so profoundly that it’s safe to say we’ve never really gotten over them. It’s become a cliché to call them the first hippies, rock stars and celebrities; above all, these men and women defined what it means to be an artist in the modern age—a heroic, if lonely figure who insists on remaining true to his genius in a harsh and venal world,” says Miller.