Robert Southey (1774–1843) was a poet, critic, historian and reviewer. As a young man he attempted to pursue careers in the church, medicine and law before being able to make a living through writing. He was a close friend of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth and shared their radical social views and living near both in Grasmere in the Lake District. He was appointed poet laureate in 1813 and took the post seriously, writing politically charged poems, as well as the typical odes. As a clergyman, Southey also published several works on religion, including this analysis of Methodism.