<P> A number of women poets of note emerged during the period of the Restoration, including Aphra Behn, Margaret Cavendish, Mary Chudleigh, Anne Finch, Anne Killigrew, and Katherine Philips . Nevertheless, print publication by women poets was still relatively scarce when compared to that of men, though manuscript evidence indicates that many more women poets were practicing than was previously thought . Disapproval of feminine "forwardness", however, kept many out of print in the early part of the period, and even as the century progressed women authors still felt the need to justify their incursions into the public sphere by claiming economic necessity or the pressure of friends . Women writers were increasingly active in all genres throughout the 18th century, and by the 1790s women's poetry was flourishing . Notable poets later in the period include Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Joanna Baillie, Susanna Blamire, Felicia Hemans, Mary Leapor, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Hannah More, and Mary Robinson . In the past decades there has been substantial scholarly and critical work done on women poets of the long 18th century: first, to reclaim them and make them available in contemporary editions in print or online, and second, to assess them and position them within a literary tradition . </P> <P> Towards the end of the 18th century, poetry began to move away from the strict Augustan ideals and a new emphasis on the sentiment and feelings of the poet was established . This trend can perhaps be most clearly seen in the handling of nature, with a move away from poems about formal gardens and landscapes by urban poets and towards poems about nature as lived in . The leading exponents of this new trend include Thomas Gray, George Crabbe, Christopher Smart and Robert Burns as well as the Irish poet Oliver Goldsmith . These poets can be seen as paving the way for the Romantic movement . </P> <P> See also: Romantic literature in English; English Romantic sonnets </P> <P> The last quarter of the 18th century was a time of social and political turbulence, with revolutions inthe United States, France, Ireland and elsewhere . In Great Britain, movement for social change and a more inclusive sharing of power was also growing . This was the backdrop against which the Romantic movement in English poetry emerged . </P>

Of the major poets studied in this unit the victorian that was least concerned with innovation is