Romantic poetry: Keats and Shelley

The Romantic poets wrote in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. They put nature, feeling and imagination at the centre of poetry, and their poems are still studied at GCSE today.

Practise this lesson free (7 questions)

Who were the Romantics?

Key poets include William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats.
Common interests: the beauty and power of nature, strong emotion, the imagination, the individual, and distrust of power and pride.

Keats: 'To Autumn'

John Keats (1795 to 1821) died aged just 25. 'To Autumn' is an ode: a poem that addresses and celebrates its subject. Here autumn is personified as a close friend of the sun, working together to ripen the fruit.
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
John Keats, 'To Autumn' (written 1819, published 1820), lines 1 and 2

Shelley: 'Ozymandias'

In this sonnet by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 to 1822), a traveller describes a huge broken statue of an ancient king in the desert. Ozymandias is a Greek name for the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II. The words on the statue boast of his power, yet nothing else remains around it: just sand. The poem mocks human pride: time and nature defeat even the mightiest rulers.
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Percy Bysshe Shelley, 'Ozymandias' (published 1818), lines 10 and 11 (the words on the statue)
Worked example

Explain the irony in the words 'Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!'

  1. The king meant other rulers to despair because his works were so great.
  2. But his works have crumbled; only sand remains.
  3. So now they should despair for a different reason: all power fades.

Answer: The king boasts that other rulers will despair at his greatness, but his empire has vanished, so the words now show that all power and pride are temporary.

Key idea

The Romantics celebrated nature, emotion and imagination. Keats's 'To Autumn' is an ode that personifies autumn. Shelley's sonnet 'Ozymandias' shows the pride of a king destroyed by time.

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Extra practice

2 more questions

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  1. Which of these is a Romantic poet?

    1. Wilfred Owen
    2. Robert Browning
    3. Carol Ann Duffy
    4. William Wordsworth
    Show the answer

    Answer: William Wordsworth

    Wordsworth was a leading Romantic.

  2. Who wrote 'To Autumn'?

    1. William Blake
    2. Percy Shelley
    3. John Keats
    4. Wilfred Owen
    Show the answer

    Answer: John Keats

    Keats wrote 'To Autumn' in 1819.

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Sources and references

Checked by the GCSE-ready editorial team, 17 October 2026. Last updated 2 October 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we will fix it.