Lake poets refers to/kloc-an early school of English romanticism in the 9th century. The main representatives are Wordsworth (1770- 1850), Coleridge (1772- 1834) and Southey (1774- 1843). Because the three of them once lived in seclusion in Cumberland Lake District, northwest England, and lived on the two lakesides of Grassmill and Windmeier successively, they praised the lakes and mountains with poems, so they were called "Lake Poets".
The beginning of the British Romantic Movement was marked by a collection of lyric poems published by Wordsworth and Coleridge in 1798. Wordsworth's preface, written when the poetry anthology was reprinted in 1800, became the artistic program of English romanticism declaring war on classicism. Because they rebelled against the traditional laws of classicism and advocated romantic artistic methods, they also called Huxiang poets "romantic rebels".
At first, lake poets sympathized with the French Revolution. With the deepening of the revolution, they retreated from the fear of the revolution, and then escaped from reality, obsessed with the past, beautified the patriarchal clan system in the Middle Ages, and fantasized about seeking spiritual comfort and sustenance from the ancient feudal society. Southey and Wordsworth were successively named Poets Laureate, and Southey even openly opposed young poets Byron and Shelley.
When the negative tendency of the Lake School poets became more and more obvious, young poets Byron and Shelley began to enter the literary world and argue with the Lake School poets. Byron's satirical poem "English Poet and Scottish Critics" written in 1809 not only responded to the attack on Byron's poems by the Edinburgh Review, a publication manipulated by negative romantics, but also severely condemned the negative tendency of the lakeside poets. Byron, Shelley and Keats were called "Satanists" in the history of literature because they dared to fight against Huxiang poets and were denounced as Satan by British gentry.
Generally speaking, Huxiang poets represent the negative romantic tendency, while Satan represents the positive romantic spirit. Although the Lake School poets have made great contributions to the struggle against classicism and made great achievements in the art of poetry, their historical position is far less important than Satan's.