Robert Southey’s Career

Abstract

The essay concerns some of the paradoxes of Robert Southey’s career, which stretched from the French Revolution through to the early Victorian era, in particular continuities between his early revolutionary enthusiasm and the relentless energy of his professional life as a writer. His presence in anthologies is surveyed, and a range of critical responses is discussed. Finally, by way of identifying a more personal formative circumstance that may have shaped and impelled his life and writings, the essay explores the significance of a memory from Southey’s early boyhood.