AP English Literature THE ROMANTIC PERIOD:

A PERIOD OF GREAT CHANGE FOR CENTURIES ENGLAND HAD BEEN AN AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY W/ A POWERFUL LANDHOLDING ARISTOCRACY.

PERIOD OF CHANGE (cont.) NOW THE COUNTRY WAS BEING TRANSFORMED INTO A MODERN INDUSTRIAL NATION OF LARGE- SCALE EMPLOYERS & A GROWING, RESTLESS MIDDLE CLASS.

THE POLITICAL CONTEXT THE AMERICAN & FRENCH REVOLU- TIONS ECONOMIC INFLATION & DEPRESSION THREATS TO THE EXISTING SOCIAL ORDER FROM NEW, REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AT FIRST WIDELY SUPPORTED BY ENGLISH LIBERALS & RADICALS, WHO ADVOCATED A DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC FOR ENGLAND THROUGH EITHER PEACEFUL EVOLUTION OR POPULAR REVOLUTION.

FRENCH REVOLUTION (cont.) AS THE REVOLUTION BECAME IN- CREASINGLY BLOODY, HOWEVER (CULMINATING IN THE “REIGN OF TERROR”), ENGLISH SYMPATHY WANED.

FRENCH REVOLUTION (cont.) NAPOLEAN, THE CHAMPION OF THE REVOLUTION, HIMSELF BECAME A DICTATOR WHO WAS ULTIMATELY DEFEATED BY OTHER REACTION- ARY TYRANTS.

CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND A TIME OF HARSH POLITICAL RE- PRESSION, IN SPITE OF THE NEED FOR POLITICAL CHANGES BROUGHT ABOUT BY THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLU- TION.

PHYSICAL & SOCIAL CHANGES MILL TOWNS GREW. THE LANDSCAPE WAS INCREASINGLY SUBDIVIDED. FACTORIES SPEWED SMOKE & POL- LUTION OVER EVER-EXPANDING SLUMS. THE POPULATION WAS INCREASING- LY DIVIDED INTO RICH & POOR.

LACK OF REFORM ECONOMIC & POLITICAL REFORMS WERE SLOW TO OCCUR BECAUSE OF THE PREVAILING LAISSEZ-FAIRE (“LET ALONE”) PHILOSOPHY.

Impact of Industrial Revolution on the Common People THE MOST IMPORTANTASPECT OF THE I.R. WAS THE APPLICATION OF INDUSTRIAL PRINCIPLES OF PRODUCTION TO HUMAN WORK THE MACHINE BECAME A MODEL OF THE FACTORY ASSEMBLY LINES AND MASS PRODUCTION RESULTED FROM THIS DEVELOPMENT WORKING PEOPLE WERE PUT UNDER DANGEROUS AND DEHUMANIZING CONDITONS FOR LOW WAGES

LACK OF REFORM (cont.) THE CONSEQUENCES WERE LOW WAGES FOR MOST WORKERS, HORRI- BLE WORKING CONDITIONS, & LARGE-SCALE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN & CHILDREN IN CRUSHING OCCUPATIONS (SUCH AS COAL MIN- ING).

LACK OF REFORM (cont.) IN THE FACE OF ECONOMIC DEPRES- SION & TECHNOLOGICAL UNEM- PLOYMENT, WORKERS (WHO HAD NO VOTE) HAD TO RESORT TO PROTESTS & RIOTS, INCURRING FURTHER RE- PRESSION.

LACK OF REFORM (cont.) WHILE THE POOR OF ENGLAND SUFFERED, HOWEVER, THE LEISURE CLASS PROSPERED.

THE PLIGHT OF WOMEN WOMEN OF ALL CLASSES WERE REGARDED AS INFERIOR TO MEN & HAD ALMOST NO LEGAL RIGHTS.

PLIGHT OF WOMEN (cont.) WOMEN WERE UNDEREDUCATED, HAD LIMITED VOCATIONAL OPPOR- TUNITIES, AND WERE SUBJECT TO A STRICT CODE OF SEXUAL CONDUCT.

PLIGHT OF WOMEN (cont.) THOUGH THE CAUSE OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS WAS LARGELY IGNORED, REFORM OF MALE POLITICAL RIGHTS GRADUALLY MOVED FORWARD.

ROMANTICISM A DIFFICULT TERM TO DEFINE BECAUSE OF THE VARIETY OF LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS, AND WRITERS OF THE PERIOD WERE ONLY LATER LABELED “ROMANTIC.”

ROMANTICISM (cont.) BUT MANY HAD A SENSE OF THE “SPIRIT OF THE AGE”—THAT A GREAT RELEASE OF CREATIVE ENERGY WAS OCCURING AS AN ACCOMPANIMENT TO POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CHANGE.

ROMANTICISM (cont.) THE ROMANTIC PERIOD WAS SEEN BY MANY AS AN AGE OF NEW BEGINNINGS AND UNLIMITED POSSIBILITIES.

ENLIGHTMENT VS. ROMANTICISM ENLIGHTMENT ENSHIRNED REASON – ROMANTICS CELEBRATED MADNESS ENLIGHTMENT CRITICIZED ENTHUSIASM AND DISTRUSTED THE EMOTIONAL SIDE OF HUMANITY –ROMANTICS CALLED ON HUMANS TO TRUST THEIR INSTINCTS AND FEELINGS ENLIGHTENMENT BELIEVED SCIENCE WAS THE IDEAL OF HUMAN ACHIEVEMENT – ROMANTICS EMPHASIZED POETRY

ENLIGHTMENT VS. ROMANTICISM ENLIGHTENMENT EMPHASIZED PROGRESS – ROMANTICS SOUGHT TO RETURN TO AN IDEALIZED PAST, WHILE ALSO REALIZING THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF SUCH A RETURN THEREFORE: ROMANTICS REPLACED THE ENLIGHTENMENT’S OPTIMISM WITH A SENSE OF TRAGEDY AND MELANCHOLIA

THE ‘BIG SIX’ OF ENGLISH ROMANTICISM WILLIAM BLAKE ( ) WILLIAM WORDSWORTH ( ) SAMUELTAYLOR COLERIDGE ( ) GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON ( ) PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY( ) JOHN KEATS (1795—1821)

“FATHERS” OF ROMANTIC POETRY WORDSWORTH AND COLERIDGE PUBLISHED THE LYRICAL BALLADS IN 1798 VOLUME CONTAINED “TINTERN ABBEY” (WORDSWORTH) AND “RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER” (COLERIDGE)

POETIC THEORY & PRACTICE WILLIAM WORDSWORTH ( ) TRIED TO ARTICULATE THE SPIRIT OF THE NEW POETRY OF THE PERIOD IN THE PREFACE TO LYRICAL BALLADS (1800, 1802).

ROMANTIC POETRY THE ROMANTIC CONCEPTION OF POETRY WAS OF THE “SPONTANEOUS OVERFLOW OF POWERFUL FEEL- INGS.”

ROMANTIC POETRY (cont.) THE ESSENCE OF POETIC CONTENT WAS SEEN AS THE MIND, EMOTIONS, AND IMAGINATION OF THE POET (NOT THE OUTER WORLD).

ROMANTIC POETRY (cont.) THE FIRST-PERSON LYRIC POEM BE- CAME THE MAJOR LITERARY FORM OF THE ERA, WITH THE “I” OF THE POEM OFTEN REFERRING DIRECTLY TO THE POET.

ROMANTIC POETRY (cont.) IN KEEPING WITH THIS, POEMS ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SELF BECAME A MAJOR POETIC FORM.

ROMANTIC POETRY (cont.) ROMANTIC POETS ALSO OFTEN SAW THEMSELVES AS PROPHETS IN A TIME OF CRISIS, REVISING THE BIBLICAL PROMISE OF DIVINE REDEMPTION IN TERMS OF A “HEAVEN” ON EARTH.

ROMANTIC POETRY (cont.) ROMANTICISM ALSO PLACES GREAT EMPHASIS ON THE CONCEPT OF POETIC SPONTANEITY & FREEDOM.

POETIC SPONTANEITY (cont.) IN THE ROMANTIC VIEW, THE INI- TIAL ACT OF POETIC COMPOSITION MUST ARISE FROM IMPULSE, BE FREE FROM RULES INHERITED FROM THE PAST, AND RELY ON INSTINCT, INTUITION, AND FEELING.

ROMANTIC POETRY (cont.) ROMANTIC POETS ALSO EMPHASIZE THE IMPORTANCE OF ACCURATELY OBSERVING AND DESCRIBING NATURE, WHICH SERVES AS A STIMULUS TO THINKING AND TO THE RESOLUTION OF PERSONAL PROBLEMS AND CRISES.

ROLE OF NATURE (cont.) IN ROMANTIC POETRY THE LAND- SCAPE IS OFTEN GIVEN HUMAN QUALITIES OR SEEN AS A SYMBOL SYSTEM REVEALING THE NATURE OF THE DIVINE.

ROMANTIC POETRY (cont.) ROMANTIC POETS ALSO FREQUENT- LY GLORIFY THE COMMONPLACE. IN THIS PERIOD, HUMBLE, RUSTIC SUBJECT MATTER AND PLAIN STYLE BECAME THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECT AND MEDIUM OF POETRY.

THE COMMONPLACE (cont.) ROMANTIC POETS SOUGHT TO RE- FRESH READERS’ SENSE OF WONDER ABOUT THE ORDINARY THINGS OF LIFE, TO MAKE THE “OLD” SEEM NEW.

ROMANTIC POETRY (cont.) IN SPITE OF THE ABOVE COMMENTS ABOUT GLORIFYING THE COMMON- PLACE, MANY ROMANTIC POEMS ALSO EXPLORE THE REALM OF MYSTERY AND MAGIC, THE STRANGE AND SUPERNATURAL.

THE STRANGE (cont.) THESE KINDS OF POEMS OFTEN IN- CORPORATE MATERIAL FROM FOLK- LORE, SUPERSTITION, ETC. AND ARE SET IN FARAWAY PLACES OR THE DISTANT PAST.

THE STRANGE (cont.) ROMANTIC POETS OFTEN SHOWED AN INTEREST IN UNUSUAL MODES OF EXPERIENCE, SUCH AS VISIONARY STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS, HYPNO- TISM, DREAMS, DRUG-INDUCED STATES, AND SO FORTH.