"Johnson and Pope: Agon or Admiration Society?" Timothy Erwin, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, timothy.erwin@unlv.edu At the 2020 ASECS meeting in Toronto a speaker suggested that Samuel Johnson and Alexander Pope engaged in "a lifelong agon." The idea deserves sustained discussion. When the unknown Johnson published "London" (1738), he entered willingly or not into a competition with Pope, whose "One Thousand Seven Hundred and Thirty Eight: A Dialogue" appeared about the same time. Pope was impressed, saying of the anonymous author that his identity would soon be known.

Romantic Poets have always been viewed as Nature poets. The stereotype of nature, pastoral, or sceneries has been the trademark. But as literature students, we come across the point, is romantic poetry limited to nature, sky, river, and brooks? 

The best part about this small question is the ambiguity of the answer. On the superficial level, romantic poetry and Victorian poetry are confined to nature poetry. But Blake and Wordsworth are not the torchbearers of romanticism. The credit goes to Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of poetry. Chaucer has written The Canterbury tales has elements of romanticism.