Recurring references to the sciences, from the Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1800) to Literature and Science (1882), point to the way poetic writing defined itself in a constructive confrontation with scientific discourse, from the publication of Songs of Innocence in 1789 to Gerard Manley Hopkins’s death in 1889. This issue addresses the ways 19th century British poets found renewed sources of inspiration in scientific discourse, thus deeply transforming its original meaning and import. It also investigates the ways the meditation of Romantic and Victorian poets on the powers and forms of scientific knowledge shifted towards a reflection on the powers and forms of poetry.