Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles Darwin, was best known for his poetry, in which he expressed his scientific ideas. The leading medical man of his day, he was asked several times to be personal physician to King George, but declined, as he disapproved of the monarchy. Intellectual, inventor, and radical, he had many learned friends, including Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Dr. Thomas Beddoes, Henry Fuseli, Benjamin Franklin and Josiah Wedgewood (Charles Darwin's other grandfather).

Darwin was also acquainted with the Godwin family and his experiments with primitive life forms (at least as perceived and discussed at the Villa Diodati,) were a key factor in inspiring Mary Godwin 's dream, which in turn provided the spark for Frankenstein.

Although the devout S.T. Coleridge deplored Darwin's atheism and evolutionary theories, he admitted Dr. Darwin possesses, perhaps a greater range of knowledge than any other man in Europe and is the most inventive of philosophical men. He thinks in a new train on all subjects except religion...When he talks on any other subject he is a wonderfully entertaining and instructive old man...... I absolutely nauseate Darwin's Poem. Nevertheless, he was a considerable influence on Coleridge's Theory of Life.

Darwin's poetry influenced Keats, Shelley, Byron, Wordsworth and (the grudging) Coleridge.