For the present purposes, our interest in the romantic poets is less for
the sake of their own convictions than for ascertaining the nature of
their influence on English society. In their critique of modern society
the Lake poets, in common with so many nineteenth-century critics,
tended to idealize the medieval period. The new industrialism they
believed carried with it a dehumanization, a loss of many values that
the Middle Ages had honored by preserving the religious heritage of
Europe.
