Hannah More : A Versatile Genius in the Span of Romanticism

The Romantic Movement in England was a part of the general European reaction against the spirit of the eighteenth century. The nature of Romanticism may be approached from the primary importance of the free expression of the feelings of the artist. Romantics were distrustful of the human world, and tended to believe a close connection with nature was mentally and morally healthy. In English literature, the key figures of the Romantic movement are considered to be the group of poets including William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and the much older William Blake. In English Romantic Poetry, the above six great male poets are well appreciated. But surprisingly enough, a very less recognition is given to the female Romantic poets like Hannah More, Joanna Baillie, Mary Robinson, Charlotte Turner Smith etc. Hannah More was a successful poet, playwright and campaigner, she was a champion of social reform, female education and the abolition of slavery during Romantic era. She was the versatile genius in the span of Romanticism.