The dandy, especially associated with the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, represents refined self-fashioning elevated into an aesthetic philosophy. In poetry, dandies embody tensions between art and life, individuality and society, sincerity and performance. Writers used the figure to explore identity as a constructed act, often admiring the dandy’s wit while questioning the emotional cost of living as a work of art.

The dandy emerges later than many archaic types and reflects modern self-consciousness about identity and style. In poetry, dandies blur the line between sincerity and performance, often embodying aesthetic rebellion. The term can be admiring or critical, depending on context. It is useful for analysing nineteenth-century poetry concerned with artifice, individuality, and social detachment.