O reader! Does a drowsy numbness pain your sense? Does the sight of a ruined abbey send you into dizzy raptures? If so, you may be ready to take your place among the immortal poets of the Romantic era. Just follow these simple instructions, and become a permanent fixture on the English 101 syllabus.

1. Mien and Demeanor
First, look the part. One thing the Romantics had in common was hair, and lots of it -- masses of glossy curls, preferably raven-hued. Wear an open-necked shirt in all weather; this will both expose your shapely throat and help you to catch a wasting ailment (see Step 4). If you have a tendency toward fat, emulate Lord Byron: When he found himself exceeding the limits of poetic girth, he played cricket wearing seven waistcoats and a greatcoat until he was once again suitably ethereal.

Get an early start. As a teenager, Shelley was already sleeping with pistol and poison under his pillow, and writing poems about nuns with 'half-eaten eyeballs.' Suicide must always be an option. ' I should, many a good day, have blown my brains out,' reflected Byron, 'but for the recollection that it would have given pleasure to my mother-in-law.'

2. Dissipation and Love
Youthful exploits can fall into two categories: athletics or expulsions. Either swim or walk a notable distance (Byron, Keats) or get kicked out of school for a scurrilous publication (Shelley for The Necessity of Atheism; Southey for The Flagellant, a protest against flogging). Later, ingest large quantities of controlled substances. Coleridge chose opium; Byron preferred to quaff claret from the skull of a medieval monk.

In matters of the heart, you must be either a conspicuous failure or a conspicuous success. Keats was too short (barely five feet) to find love, which induced professionally useful melancholy. Byron's amours, on the other hand, ran the gamut from his Calvinist Bible teacher to an Italian countess to a Cambridge choirboy to his own half-sister. He left broken hearts and illegitimate children in his wake, which scandalized England and boosted sales.