Paul Stephens
@paulstephens.bsky.social
Leverhulme ECF in English @ University of York (Romanticism and the Cost of Living 1780-1830). He/Him
• Former AHRC Postdoc Research Fellow, Lecturer, and DPhil @ University of Oxford.
https://www.york.ac.uk/english/people/paulstephens/
• Former AHRC Postdoc Research Fellow, Lecturer, and DPhil @ University of Oxford.
https://www.york.ac.uk/english/people/paulstephens/
"Do not diet your mind with grief, it destroys the constitution; but let your chief care be of your health, and with that you will meet your share of Pleasure in the world—do not doubt it."
John Keats (letter to F. Keats, 23 Aug. 1820)
John Keats (letter to F. Keats, 23 Aug. 1820)
August 23, 2025 at 8:02 AM
"Do not diet your mind with grief, it destroys the constitution; but let your chief care be of your health, and with that you will meet your share of Pleasure in the world—do not doubt it."
John Keats (letter to F. Keats, 23 Aug. 1820)
John Keats (letter to F. Keats, 23 Aug. 1820)
Such is the folly of the world, and so do things seem different from what they are; since [...] Sir Timothy writhes under the fame of his incomparable son, as if it were the most grievous injury done to him; and so, perhaps, after all it will prove.
Mary Shelley (letter to Leigh Hunt, 22 Aug. 1824)
Mary Shelley (letter to Leigh Hunt, 22 Aug. 1824)
August 22, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Such is the folly of the world, and so do things seem different from what they are; since [...] Sir Timothy writhes under the fame of his incomparable son, as if it were the most grievous injury done to him; and so, perhaps, after all it will prove.
Mary Shelley (letter to Leigh Hunt, 22 Aug. 1824)
Mary Shelley (letter to Leigh Hunt, 22 Aug. 1824)
"I have been miserably unwell for the last three days — but [...], finding myself convalescent this morning, I bathed, and now am still better, having had a glorious tumble in the waves, though the water is still not cold enough for my liking."
S. T. Coleridge (letter to J. Gillman, 20 Aug. 1819)
S. T. Coleridge (letter to J. Gillman, 20 Aug. 1819)
August 20, 2025 at 10:28 AM
"I have been miserably unwell for the last three days — but [...], finding myself convalescent this morning, I bathed, and now am still better, having had a glorious tumble in the waves, though the water is still not cold enough for my liking."
S. T. Coleridge (letter to J. Gillman, 20 Aug. 1819)
S. T. Coleridge (letter to J. Gillman, 20 Aug. 1819)
[T]he snowy Alps [...] look like those accumulated clouds of dazzling white that arrange themselves on the horizon in summer. This immensity staggers the imagination, and [...] requires an effort of the understanding to believe that they are indeed mountains.
Mary Shelley (Journal, 19 Aug. 1814)
Mary Shelley (Journal, 19 Aug. 1814)
August 19, 2025 at 12:56 PM
[T]he snowy Alps [...] look like those accumulated clouds of dazzling white that arrange themselves on the horizon in summer. This immensity staggers the imagination, and [...] requires an effort of the understanding to believe that they are indeed mountains.
Mary Shelley (Journal, 19 Aug. 1814)
Mary Shelley (Journal, 19 Aug. 1814)
Our mossy seat in the deepest recesses of the wood was enclosed from the world by an impenetrable veil. On our return the postillion had departed without us; he left word that he expected to meet us on the road. We proceeded there upon foot to Maison Neuve
Mary Shelley (Journal, 18 Aug. 1814)
Mary Shelley (Journal, 18 Aug. 1814)
August 18, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Our mossy seat in the deepest recesses of the wood was enclosed from the world by an impenetrable veil. On our return the postillion had departed without us; he left word that he expected to meet us on the road. We proceeded there upon foot to Maison Neuve
Mary Shelley (Journal, 18 Aug. 1814)
Mary Shelley (Journal, 18 Aug. 1814)
"There is a paper of mine in the last Quarterly, upon the means of bettering the condition of the poor. You will be interested by a story which it contains of an old woman upon Exmoor. In Wordsworth’s blank-verse it would go to every heart"
Robert Southey (letter to C. H. Townshend, 17 Aug. 1816)
Robert Southey (letter to C. H. Townshend, 17 Aug. 1816)
August 17, 2025 at 10:24 AM
"There is a paper of mine in the last Quarterly, upon the means of bettering the condition of the poor. You will be interested by a story which it contains of an old woman upon Exmoor. In Wordsworth’s blank-verse it would go to every heart"
Robert Southey (letter to C. H. Townshend, 17 Aug. 1816)
Robert Southey (letter to C. H. Townshend, 17 Aug. 1816)
"If the funds break, it is my intention to go upon the highway. All the other English professions are at present so ungentlemanly by the conduct of those who follow them, that open robbing is the only fair resource left to a man of any principles"
Lord Byron (letter to J. Murray, 16 Aug. 1821)
Lord Byron (letter to J. Murray, 16 Aug. 1821)
August 16, 2025 at 10:11 AM
"If the funds break, it is my intention to go upon the highway. All the other English professions are at present so ungentlemanly by the conduct of those who follow them, that open robbing is the only fair resource left to a man of any principles"
Lord Byron (letter to J. Murray, 16 Aug. 1821)
Lord Byron (letter to J. Murray, 16 Aug. 1821)
I am convinced more and more every day that (excepting the human friend philosopher), a fine writer is the most genuine being in the world. Shakspeare and the Paradise lost every day become greater wonders to me. I look upon fine phrases like a lover.
John Keats (letter to B. Bailey, 15 Aug. 1819)
John Keats (letter to B. Bailey, 15 Aug. 1819)
August 15, 2025 at 7:30 AM
I am convinced more and more every day that (excepting the human friend philosopher), a fine writer is the most genuine being in the world. Shakspeare and the Paradise lost every day become greater wonders to me. I look upon fine phrases like a lover.
John Keats (letter to B. Bailey, 15 Aug. 1819)
John Keats (letter to B. Bailey, 15 Aug. 1819)
Our house is a delightful residence, something less than half a mile from the lake of Keswick and something more than a furlong from the town. [...] Skiddaw is behind us; to the left, the right, and in front mountains of all shapes and sizes.
S. T. Coleridge (letter to T. Poole, 14 Aug. 1800)
S. T. Coleridge (letter to T. Poole, 14 Aug. 1800)
August 14, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Our house is a delightful residence, something less than half a mile from the lake of Keswick and something more than a furlong from the town. [...] Skiddaw is behind us; to the left, the right, and in front mountains of all shapes and sizes.
S. T. Coleridge (letter to T. Poole, 14 Aug. 1800)
S. T. Coleridge (letter to T. Poole, 14 Aug. 1800)
I beg you will keep an account of money received and paid. Buy a little book ruled for the purpose, for pounds, shillings, and pence, and keep an account of cash received and expended. The balance ought to be cash in purse, if [...] regularly kept.
Walter Scott (letter to W. Scott Jn, 13 Aug. 1819)
Walter Scott (letter to W. Scott Jn, 13 Aug. 1819)
August 13, 2025 at 10:52 AM
I beg you will keep an account of money received and paid. Buy a little book ruled for the purpose, for pounds, shillings, and pence, and keep an account of cash received and expended. The balance ought to be cash in purse, if [...] regularly kept.
Walter Scott (letter to W. Scott Jn, 13 Aug. 1819)
Walter Scott (letter to W. Scott Jn, 13 Aug. 1819)
"It is strange that I look on the skulls which stand beside me (I have always had four in my study) without emotion, but I cannot strip the features of those I have known of their fleshy covering, even in idea, without a hideous sensation"
Lord Byron (letter to R. C. Dallas, 12 Aug. 1811)
Lord Byron (letter to R. C. Dallas, 12 Aug. 1811)
August 12, 2025 at 9:36 AM
"It is strange that I look on the skulls which stand beside me (I have always had four in my study) without emotion, but I cannot strip the features of those I have known of their fleshy covering, even in idea, without a hideous sensation"
Lord Byron (letter to R. C. Dallas, 12 Aug. 1811)
Lord Byron (letter to R. C. Dallas, 12 Aug. 1811)
There would, perhaps, be no means so effectual as that (which will never be listened to) of taxing the manufacturers according to the number of hands which they employ on an average, and applying the produce in maintaining the manufacturing poor.
Walter Scott (letter to J. Morritt, 11 Aug. 1817)
Walter Scott (letter to J. Morritt, 11 Aug. 1817)
August 11, 2025 at 8:53 PM
There would, perhaps, be no means so effectual as that (which will never be listened to) of taxing the manufacturers according to the number of hands which they employ on an average, and applying the produce in maintaining the manufacturing poor.
Walter Scott (letter to J. Morritt, 11 Aug. 1817)
Walter Scott (letter to J. Morritt, 11 Aug. 1817)
[T]he fireworks were splendent [...] in trees and all shapes, spreading about like young stars in the making, floundering about in Space (like unbroke horses) till some of Newton’s calculations should fix them, but then they went out.
Charles Lamb (letter to W. Wordsworth, 9 Aug. 1814)
Charles Lamb (letter to W. Wordsworth, 9 Aug. 1814)
August 9, 2025 at 10:57 AM
[T]he fireworks were splendent [...] in trees and all shapes, spreading about like young stars in the making, floundering about in Space (like unbroke horses) till some of Newton’s calculations should fix them, but then they went out.
Charles Lamb (letter to W. Wordsworth, 9 Aug. 1814)
Charles Lamb (letter to W. Wordsworth, 9 Aug. 1814)
We shall probably agree altogether some day upon Wordsworth’s Lyrical Poems. Does he not associate more feeling with particular phrases, and you also with him, than those phrases can convey to any one else? This I suspect.
Robert Southey (letter to S. T. Coleridge, 4 Aug. 1802)
Robert Southey (letter to S. T. Coleridge, 4 Aug. 1802)
August 4, 2025 at 11:28 AM
We shall probably agree altogether some day upon Wordsworth’s Lyrical Poems. Does he not associate more feeling with particular phrases, and you also with him, than those phrases can convey to any one else? This I suspect.
Robert Southey (letter to S. T. Coleridge, 4 Aug. 1802)
Robert Southey (letter to S. T. Coleridge, 4 Aug. 1802)
Here are the craggy stones beneath my feet,—
Thus much I know that, a poor witless elf,
I tread on them,—that all my eye doth meet
Is mist and crag, not only on this height,
But in the world of thought and mental might!
John Keats (letter to T. Keats, 3 Aug. 1818)
Thus much I know that, a poor witless elf,
I tread on them,—that all my eye doth meet
Is mist and crag, not only on this height,
But in the world of thought and mental might!
John Keats (letter to T. Keats, 3 Aug. 1818)
August 3, 2025 at 10:36 AM
Here are the craggy stones beneath my feet,—
Thus much I know that, a poor witless elf,
I tread on them,—that all my eye doth meet
Is mist and crag, not only on this height,
But in the world of thought and mental might!
John Keats (letter to T. Keats, 3 Aug. 1818)
Thus much I know that, a poor witless elf,
I tread on them,—that all my eye doth meet
Is mist and crag, not only on this height,
But in the world of thought and mental might!
John Keats (letter to T. Keats, 3 Aug. 1818)
I go to the town with Shelley, to buy a telescope for his birthday present. In the evening Lord Byron and he go out in the boat, and, after their return, Shelley and Clare go up to Diodati; I do not, for Lord Byron did not seem to wish it.
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (Journal, 2 Aug. 1816)
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (Journal, 2 Aug. 1816)
August 2, 2025 at 9:17 PM
I go to the town with Shelley, to buy a telescope for his birthday present. In the evening Lord Byron and he go out in the boat, and, after their return, Shelley and Clare go up to Diodati; I do not, for Lord Byron did not seem to wish it.
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (Journal, 2 Aug. 1816)
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (Journal, 2 Aug. 1816)
Come what may, I never will flatter the million’s canting in any shape. Circumstances may or may not have placed me at times in a situation to lead the public opinion, but the public opinion never led, nor ever shall lead, me.
Lord Byron (letter to J. Murray, 1 Aug 1819)
Lord Byron (letter to J. Murray, 1 Aug 1819)
August 1, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Come what may, I never will flatter the million’s canting in any shape. Circumstances may or may not have placed me at times in a situation to lead the public opinion, but the public opinion never led, nor ever shall lead, me.
Lord Byron (letter to J. Murray, 1 Aug 1819)
Lord Byron (letter to J. Murray, 1 Aug 1819)
I am perplexed what to write, or how to state the object of my writing.
S. T. Coleridge (letter to R. Southey, 29 July 1799)
S. T. Coleridge (letter to R. Southey, 29 July 1799)
July 29, 2025 at 9:07 AM
I am perplexed what to write, or how to state the object of my writing.
S. T. Coleridge (letter to R. Southey, 29 July 1799)
S. T. Coleridge (letter to R. Southey, 29 July 1799)
In poetry I have sought to avoid system & mannerism; I wish those who excel me in genius, would pursue the same plan
P. B. Shelley (letter to John Keats, 27 July 1820)
P. B. Shelley (letter to John Keats, 27 July 1820)
July 27, 2025 at 9:20 PM
In poetry I have sought to avoid system & mannerism; I wish those who excel me in genius, would pursue the same plan
P. B. Shelley (letter to John Keats, 27 July 1820)
P. B. Shelley (letter to John Keats, 27 July 1820)
I have lately read you Endymion again & ever with a new sense of the treasures of poetry it contains, though treasures poured forth with indistinct profusion. This [...] is the cause of the comparatively few copies which have been sold.
P. B. Shelley (letter to John Keats, 27 July 1820)
P. B. Shelley (letter to John Keats, 27 July 1820)
July 27, 2025 at 9:08 PM
I have lately read you Endymion again & ever with a new sense of the treasures of poetry it contains, though treasures poured forth with indistinct profusion. This [...] is the cause of the comparatively few copies which have been sold.
P. B. Shelley (letter to John Keats, 27 July 1820)
P. B. Shelley (letter to John Keats, 27 July 1820)
The western coast of Scotland is a most strange place — it is composed of rocks, Mountains, mountainous and rocky Islands intersected by lochs — you can go but a short distance anywhere from salt water in the highlands.
John Keats (letter to 26 July 1818)
John Keats (letter to 26 July 1818)
July 26, 2025 at 9:18 AM
The western coast of Scotland is a most strange place — it is composed of rocks, Mountains, mountainous and rocky Islands intersected by lochs — you can go but a short distance anywhere from salt water in the highlands.
John Keats (letter to 26 July 1818)
John Keats (letter to 26 July 1818)
My dear Southey, — I do loathe cities, that’s certain.
S. T. Coleridge (letter to R. Southey, 25 July 1801)
S. T. Coleridge (letter to R. Southey, 25 July 1801)
July 25, 2025 at 10:06 PM
My dear Southey, — I do loathe cities, that’s certain.
S. T. Coleridge (letter to R. Southey, 25 July 1801)
S. T. Coleridge (letter to R. Southey, 25 July 1801)
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne
(3 Dec. 1948 – 22 Jul. 2025)
(3 Dec. 1948 – 22 Jul. 2025)
July 22, 2025 at 10:18 PM
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne
(3 Dec. 1948 – 22 Jul. 2025)
(3 Dec. 1948 – 22 Jul. 2025)
Yet be his Anchor e’er so fast, room is there for a prayer
That man may never lose his Mind on Mountains black and bare;
That he may stray league after league some Great birthplace to find
And keep his vision clear from speck, his inward sight unblind.
John Keats (letter to B. Bailey, 22 July 1818)
That man may never lose his Mind on Mountains black and bare;
That he may stray league after league some Great birthplace to find
And keep his vision clear from speck, his inward sight unblind.
John Keats (letter to B. Bailey, 22 July 1818)
July 22, 2025 at 9:24 AM
Yet be his Anchor e’er so fast, room is there for a prayer
That man may never lose his Mind on Mountains black and bare;
That he may stray league after league some Great birthplace to find
And keep his vision clear from speck, his inward sight unblind.
John Keats (letter to B. Bailey, 22 July 1818)
That man may never lose his Mind on Mountains black and bare;
That he may stray league after league some Great birthplace to find
And keep his vision clear from speck, his inward sight unblind.
John Keats (letter to B. Bailey, 22 July 1818)
I have always felt the value of having access to persons of talent and genius to be the best part of a literary man’s prerogative, and you will not wonder, I am sure, that I should be desirous this youngster should have a share of the same benefit
Walter Scott (letter to M. Edgeworth, 21 July 1819)
Walter Scott (letter to M. Edgeworth, 21 July 1819)
July 21, 2025 at 11:09 PM
I have always felt the value of having access to persons of talent and genius to be the best part of a literary man’s prerogative, and you will not wonder, I am sure, that I should be desirous this youngster should have a share of the same benefit
Walter Scott (letter to M. Edgeworth, 21 July 1819)
Walter Scott (letter to M. Edgeworth, 21 July 1819)