Kind of a silly book, not exactly scrupulous about facts (for example, the story, apocryphal anyway, of Caroline Lamb presenting herself naked on a serving tray to her husband is transmuted--because, why not--into yet another Byron rumor; "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers" is referred to as an essay, implies that "She Walks in Beauty" was written about his wife, etc.). Breezy and entertaining, if you don't care if what you're reading is true or not.

Amusing line: "Byron being Byron, love didn't come in a triangle. It came in something closer to a pentagram." ( )

Wild indeed!!! ( )

A simple, straight-forward biography of the Romantic poets, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats, Southey. I found the telling a bit simplistic and juvenile, but interesting and fun nonetheless.

This book, aimed at Young Adults, covers the lives of Romantic Poets (many who knew and were acquainted with each other) who lived in England during the Romantic Period.

Even if you don’t really read poetry, you are probably familiar with the names of some of the Romantic poets. William Wordsworth. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Lord Byron. Percy Bysshe Shelley. John Keats. The lives of these poets are focused upon in “Wildly Romantic”.

Many of these poets had messy personal lives — drug addicition (mainly to opium), sexual entanglements, children out of wedlock, bouts of poverty. The author does not shy away from covering these issues; not for salacious reasons, but rather to show that these poets were all too human. And yet they managed to write poetry that has stayed with us to this day.

How they came up with some of their poetry is also covered in this book. Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” was inspired by this:

“Late one evening in early winter, Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Dorothy [Wordsworth's sister] had gone for a walk in the hills. They could see the sea below, whitecaps foaming and its color changing from blue through shades of gray as the sun set. Then the moon rose and spread a path of cool light on the dark rippling water. For five months Coleridge wrote and revised, combining his impressions of the ocean with a dream about a ghost ship a neighbor had told him…”

Andronik uses humor here and there, which would appeal to YA readers, but also to readers in general. Many of us know that Lord Byron was infamous for his love life. As Andronik puts it:

“Byron soon stopped attending meetings of Parliament. There were so many fascinating distractions, primarily female. For most people, a love triangle is a difficult situation to escape gracefully. Byron being Byron, love didn’t come in a triangle. It came in something closer to a pentagram.”

Interspersed throughout this book are examples of poems by the Romantic poets. The placement of the poems are in between chapters, rather than embedded among the text. I liked this format.

This book would be an excellent, and very readable, introduction to the English Romantic poets. I didn’t realize that it was geared towards Young Adults until after I started reading, but this shouldn’t be considered a problem. I find it interesting that this is an Young Adult book – because, truthfully, how many Young Adults would become aware of this book, even if they like poetry or historical accounts? Perhaps this is why (at the time I wrote this review), even though this book was published in 2007, it hasn’t (as far as I know) yet undergone a paperback run. However, it can still be purchased as a new book in hardback.

“Wildly Romantic” has definitely piqued my interest in reading more of the Romantic poetry, even though I gravitate more towards the poetry of today’s era. These Romantic poets were considered revolutionary during their era (mid-1800s). ( )

This is the perfect book to get middle- and high-schoolers interested in 18th- and 19th-century poetry. (And let's face it, they're not going to get hooked on it of their own accord.) The scandalous details will reel 'em in and make the poets much more memorable than otherwise.

It's long been my opinion that people, especially students, are better off knowing the follies of the heroes of history (like the fact that Ben Franklin was a raging sex fiend, for example) -- not to demonize the aforementioned heroes or demean their accomplishments, but simply to make them more human. ( )