The Romantic Paradox

Why are there so few "happily ever afters" in the Romantic period verse romance, why do so many poets utilize the romance and its parts to such devastating effect, and why is gender so often the first victim? This work investigates the prevalence and death in the poetic romances of the Della Cruscans, Coleridge, Keats, Mary Robinson, Felicia Hemans, Letitia Landon and Byron, and posits that understanding the romance and its violent tendencies is vital to understanding Romanticism itself.