Not the least of our fascinations with Romantic poetry concerns the intimation that we have of the fascination that Romantic poets have with us. Romantic poets, that is to say, want to know what we think about them and what we think about them is largely a function of what they think of our thinking. This book seeks to engage with both dimensions of this reflexive fascination. Broadly speaking, the bifurcation outlined here coincides with the division of the present book into two parts. On the one hand, in part I, I have attempted to consider the culture of posterity as a crucial, pervasive element in Romantic poetics, to suggest that one of the key motivations of the literary as it was conceived and defined in the Romantic period is the possibility of future, posthumous recognition or canonisation. I have attempted to show how that fascination with and desire for a future audience is deeply embedded – often in paradoxical or conflictive ways – within the writing, theoretical and otherwise, of the major authors of the period. On the other hand, in part II, I have attempted to elaborate the extent to which this paradoxical, conflicted concern with posterity helps to account for the enduring significance of these poets' work.