Why romantic poetry still matters

Professor Heidi Thomson dares you to read Romantic poetry for its pure power.

Inaugural lecture—Professor Heidi Thomson

October 2018

Wallace Stevens once described poetry as an elixir incorporating thought and feeling. But does it still have a place in the twenty-first century—an era devoted to clickbait and self-obsession?

Join Victoria University of Wellington’s Professor Heidi Thomson (School of English, Film, Theatre and Media Studies) as she dares you to read Romantic poetry for its pure power. With special reference to the work of William Wordsworth and John Keats, Professor Thomson will argue Romanticism continues to be an elixir for a more compassionate, beautiful life.

This is Professor Thomson’s inaugural lecture as Professor of English Literature at Victoria University of Wellington.

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