'Georgian' is largely a negative term, used to describe formally traditional verse of the early twentieth century that concentrates mainly on rural themes, and allegedly lacks both ambition and inspiration. When one takes into account the full historical context, however, a revised view becomes possible. The Georgians were a group of poets that gained a large popular readership during the early years of George V's reign (1910-1936) and their poetry can best be read as a creditable but not entirely successful attempt to maintain Romantic, liberal and humanistic traditions when more radically experimental writers were forsaking these for the values of Modernism. In their time the Georgians were seen as practising a plain, sharp and freshly

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Published 31 July 2002

Citation: Bridges, James. "Georgian Poetry". The Literary Encyclopedia. 31 July 2002.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=470, accessed 20 November 2009.]