Satanic school

literature

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Satanic school, pejorative designation used by Robert Southey, most notably in the preface to his A Vision of Judgement (1821), in reference to certain English poets whose work he believed to be “characterised by a Satanic spirit of pride and audacious impiety.” Although Southey did not name any of those poets in his preface, elsewhere he identified Lord Byron as the head of the Satanic school, and Byron’s friend Percy Bysshe Shelley is also generally understood to have been a target of Southey’s opprobrium. The term expressed Southey’s disapproval of the unorthodox views and lifestyles of those poets and those in their circle.

This article was most recently revised and updated by John M. Cunningham.