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A Romanticist Reading is profound interpretation of the motivation behind Henry Barlow´s major work, Building the Nation and other Poems. Employed as a civil servant in turbulent post-independent Uganda, Barlow has been regarded as one of the major writers of the time one who captured and made comment on society in verse, but often with a tongue in cheek. Poet and Ankole Oral Literature gatherer Alice Jossy Kyobutungi Tumwesigye attempts to trace the muse that informed Henry Barlow´s writing. She likens Barlow to the great classical Romanticist writers; William Wordsworth, William Blake and Samuel Tailor Colleridge among others; revealing that a passionate love for nature was his major inspiration. It is a convincing interpretation.

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Alice Jossy Kyobutungi Tumwesigye studied Literature and Linguistics at Makerere University Kampala Uganda and is now a Lecturer and Head of Department Languages and Literature at Bishop Stuart University Mbarara Western Uganda. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Literature at University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

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