Romantic literature in English an English essayist, best known for his "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater" (1821), an autobiographical account of his laudanum use and its effect on his life. William Hazlitt (1778–1830), friend of both Coleridge and Wordsworth, is another important essayist at this time, though today he is best known for his literary criticism, especially "Characters of Shakespeare's Plays" (1817–18). The second generation of Romantic poets includes Lord Byron (1788–1824), Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) and John Keats (1795–1821). Byron, however, was still influenced by 18th-century satirists and was, perhaps the least 'romantic' of the three, preferring "the brilliant wit of Pope to
English Romantic sonnets were influenced by all their famous predecessors, when writing sonnets, but the most important single influence was Milton, who had written less than 30 sonnets himself. In the 17th century Milton kept the sonnet form alive while also expanding the subject matter – which hitherto had mainly been love – by writing about ideas, events, history, and contemporary issues. Like Milton, the Romantics wrote relatively few love sonnets and the sonnet of the Romantic era include politics, nature, friendship, art, history, religion, life and death. In fact some of the Romantic poets even wrote sonnets about sonnets. Wordsworth’s "Scorn not