This is the century for the history books. (The Chinese curse of living in interesting times could not be more suited.) A small island continued its expansion across the globe, bringing both good and evil in its march. Empires clashed. Revolution shook many. The Industrial age was upon us. Poets spoke up against slavery, bringing social and political pressure upon an abominable horror. It was also the age of the Romantics. Shelley, Keats, Byron lyrically rapture; Tennyson, Arnold, Browning rode a century of sweeping change, of dynamism and of great verse.