For my third COVE build I decided to focus on an important geological feature for the Romantic era writers. A common place many of these writers would visit was Italy. Before the French Revolution happened, many higher class British citizens would travel to Italy as a part of their tour of Europe, a way to broaden their perspectives and experience new culture. But, after 1796, Napoleon did not allow British citizens to visit Italy. It was not until he was defeated in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 that they were granted access to the country once more. I suggest that the time away from Italy allowed British citizens, specifically the important writers at the time, to romanticize Italy and make it to be a grander thing than it was. Stephen Heborn, who works in the Special Collections department at the Bodleian Libraries at Oxford University, suggests that many British citizens felt “relief and delight” when Italy was opened back up for travel, “recognising it as one of the fountainheads of civilisation”. From all of the major Romantic writers of the time, Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley spent the most time living in Italy. Italy offered them something that England could not: ruins of the Roman civilization. The scenery in Italy offered the writers a fresh new perspective and inspiration for their writings. IT seems that many Romantic writers, especially Lord Byron, constantly craved something exciting and new. This is evident through Byron’s interest in Carbonari, which was a revolutionary society. This desire for exciting revolutions eventually led him to move to Greece.

John Keats also came to Italy in hopes that it would be a place where he could heal for him while he suffered tuberculosis. It was believed that the fresh air and warm environment could help heal individuals who were suffering from illnesses. He was in his final stages of his struggle with tuberculosis and was unfortunately not able to take in the city of Rome in all its glory. Instead of drawing inspiration from the city around him for his writing, Keats spent his last days at a house in Rome and he was buried in a cemetery just outside of the city limits. I think the fact that Shelley’s ashes are interred near Keats' burial site shows even further how important and influential Italy was on the writers at this time period. 

It is important to understand why these Romantic era writers' presence in Italy is so crucial to the culture and people back in England, especially those who were not rich or prominent enough to travel. Reading poetry and stories about foreign places was sometimes the only way that people were able to understand the culture. Perhaps this is why Italy and Italian culture is so highly romanticized in England (and the rest of the world), because it was viewed through someone else's rose tinted glasses. The presence of English writers in Italy also allowed more Italian literature to be translated into English, allowing more people to indulge in Italian literature. It was perhaps the beginning of international literature being made available to many different cultures and countries. 

Works Cited

Fahy, Frances. “Italy and the English Romantic Poets.” Italics Magazine, 30 Apr. 2021, https://italicsmag.com/2021/04/30/italy-and-romantic-poets-lord-byron/.

Hebron, Stephen. “The Romantics and Italy.” British Library, 15 May 2014, https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-romantics-and-italy.