The Romantic Period



The Romantic Period

(1798-1832)

A period marked by great changes in England and the Western world.

• England experienced the “ordeal of change”; shifting from an agricultural society with landholders being the wealthy (aristocratic), to an industrial nation where power shifted to large-scale employers who had to deal with an enlarging “working class”

• There were constant economic cycles of: [pic]

These threatened social structures

• Three “revolutions” occurred prior to and within this time period affecting Britain tremendously:

o American Revolution – 1776 (dealt Britain heavy military and economic losses)

o French Revolution – 1789 (drew England back into costly wars)

o Industrial Revolution

• The term “Industrial Revolution” evolved as power machinery began replacing hand labor

• “Two Nations” developed (capitol and labor), the wealthy industry owners and the poor wage workers/(working class)

• A “laissez-faire” (“hands off”) philosophy formed which held that the government should not interfere with private enterprise and so the working class were at the mercy of the owners

• Women were considered a deprived class, regarded as inferior to men in all but domestic tasks

o They received limited schooling, held lowly vocations, lived under rigid codes, held no legal rights

Despite these seemingly gloomy conditions, this period was also marked by a growing desire to expand the mind and several key developments in literature occurred:

• The writers of this period dubbed their time “The Spirit of the Age” – meaning it was a persuasive, intellectual, and imaginative climate; a time of renewal and promise

• The emphasis of writers of this time was on personal experience; the expression of individual thoughts and feelings; use of nature as inspiration

[pic]

• Three romantic “schools” of poetry existed under which several important writers flourished:

o The Lake School – Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey

o The Satanic School – Lord Byron, Percy Shelley

o The Cockney School – (derogatory term for Londoners) William Hazlitt, John Keats

• The real “flowering” of the Romantic movement came with the 1798 publication of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poetic collaboration Lyrical Ballads

o Lyrical Ballads , as declared by Wordsworth in the book’s preface, was a collection of “experiments” in poetic language and subject matter

o Wordsworth was committed to the common people and deliberately chose language and subjects from the common life instead of the upper class

o Coleridge was into exploring the exotic and supernatural experiences, letting his imagination wander

o Both poets rejected the scientific and industrial worlds, and felt that a better insight into human experiences came from humans relation to nature

o Coleridge, Wordsworth, and their fellow friend and writer Robert Southey, spent a great deal of time in a rural lake district of England and are therefore dubbed “The Lake Poets”

• A second generation of poets followed Wordsworth and Coleridge:

o Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats

o Byron popularized the self-absorbed romantic hero figure in his writings

o Byron and Shelley were involved in radical politics and affairs that became scandalous, leading to their self-imposed exile from Britain

o Keats also left Britain, but was not overly concerned with the political and social affairs of his contemporaries

• Romantic period, though best known for its poetry, also produced many memorable works in prose

(novels/fiction):

[pic]

o Personal essays from Charles Lamb, William Hazlitt and Thomas De Quincey focused on the romantic emphasis of personal experience and appeared in literary journals

o The historic novel was pioneered by Sir Walter Scott (most popular novelist of his day); through his best seller Waverley

o Gothic novels (involving mystery, horror and supernatural elements) became popular; most famous – Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

o Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, an ironic/satire novel of manners, introduced more dialogue into fiction and helped pave the way for more realistic novels

• Romantic writers strove to break free from the style of their Enlightenment predecessors, dubbed neoclassical writers for their admiration and imitation of classic forms

o Romantic writers strove for a sense of freedom, wrote more serious lyric poems about their own experiences, and stressed emotions and imagination in their works (see the chart on pg 707 of your text for a more in-depth comparison)

o There are five features or characteristics that have been coined to romanticism:

• A new concept of poetry – emphasis on personal experience; writing about your own life, emotions from the heart

• New spontaneity and freedom – poetry displays spontaneous outbursts of emotion, free from strict and confining rules; intuition and imagination stressed

• Love of nature – nature is a major theme/subject of romantic poetry

• Importance of common place – poets celebrated ordinary things, common life/people

• Fascination with supernatural and exotic – introduced mystery and imagination, magic into writing, alluring beauty of the unknown

Key Romantic Period Writers: [pic]

William Wordsworth

• Attended the finest schools, including Cambridge, but found school life artificial and stifling

• Developed a great appreciation for nature at a young age

• Dubbed England’s greatest nature poet

• Aimed to express more personal experiences in his writing

• Helped usher in the literary philosophy known as “romanticism”

• Viewed nature as a source of spiritual comfort

• Valued imagination and emotion over reason

• Stressed the importance of the individual and placed poetry at the center of human experience

• Made frequent use of imagery in his writing

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

• With Wordsworth, helped usher in the literary philosophy of “romanticism”

• A leading figure in “Romantic” movement

• Was a critic, poet, and philosopher

• Responded to nature and wrote about it with intense emotion

• Poetry enthusiastically conveyed the beauty and serenity of nature as well as its savagery and wildness

• Explored themes of the supernatural

[pic]

John Keats

• Gifted romantic poet, died tragically at a young age (25) of tuberculosis

• In 1819, a year of great emotional distress for Keats, he produced a series of masterpieces that included a narrative poem, sonnets, and five odes

• Poetry reflects the powerful emotions typical of romantic poets

• Keats was not as radical or highly involved in social and political realms as his contemporaries; his works were more concerned and focused on the quality of and truth in beauty, and on the private emotions of the individual, such as joys and pains of love, anxiety about future

Percy Bysshe Shelley

• An idealist and nonconformist, opposed all injustice and sought to change the world through love, imagination and poetry

• Though viewed as one of the greatest of the romantic poets, he was rebuked by his contemporaries for his radical views (such as atheism)

• Radical views drew great criticism and led him to leave Britain and move to Italy

• Opposed to oppression and poverty (which he witnessed in Ireland) he pursued reform efforts; when these efforts failed he turned to poetry as a way to express his ideas and aspirations

• Wrote with great conviction, believing that through the imagination of the poet and the power of love, humanity could rise above the evils of society [pic]

• Explored a wide array of poetic forms and rhythmic patterns such as:

o Various rhyme and rhythm sequences in sonnets

o Odes – exalted, complex lyric poetry with developed themes

George Gordon, Lord Byron

• Achieved great popularity during romantic period

• Viewed as the ideal example of the “romantic spirit” for his creation of rebellious, moody, passionate and strong-willed heroes – such as Don Juan

• Despite being a symbol of romanticism, he scorned and avoided the experimental poetry of his contemporaries (like Coleridge)

• He did emphasize, though, freedom, individuality and the expression of powerful emotions

• Lived a very active and romantic life-style, and due in part to a failed marriage and the rumors that ensued, his popularity in Britain declined and he left for good in 1816

• Lived in various other countries afterwards, including Switzerland, Italy, and Greece

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depression

inflation

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