1. ROMANTIC PERIOD IN ENGLISH LITERATURE: 1798-1832
A BRIEF OVERVIEW

2. SOCIAL & POLITICAL CONTEXT
PERIOD OF GREAT CHANGE IN ENGLAND:
AGRICULTURAL - POWERFUL LANDHOLDING ARISTOCRACY
GIVING WAY TO MODERN INDUSTRIAL NATION OF LARGE-SCALE EMPLOYERS & A GROWING, RESTLESS MIDDLE CLASS.

3. PERIOD OF CHANGE (cont.)
AMERICAN & FRENCH REVOLUTIONS - IMPORTANT ELEMENTS OF THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE.
REVOLUTIONS - THREATS TO EXISTING SOCIAL STRUCTURE

4. PERIOD OF CHANGE (cont.)
POLITICAL REPRESSION IN ENGLAND
NEEDED CHANGES – DUE TO INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION.

6. PERIOD OF CHANGE (cont.)
MILL TOWNS GREW
THE LANDSCAPE - SUBDIVIDED
FACTORIES SPEWED POLLUTION OVER SLUMS
THE POPULATION - DIVIDED INTO RICH & POOR.

7. LACK OF REFORM
NO REFORMS – philosophy of LAISSEZ-FAIRE (“LET ALONE”) prevailed.
Lack of reforms caused the Romantic poets to turn to a more private, spontaneous, lyric poetry that championed the cause of the “common man”

8. LACK OF REFORM (cont.) CONSEQUENCES LOW WAGES
HORRIBLE WORKING CONDITIONS
LARGE-SCALE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN & CHILDREN IN BRUTALLY HARD OCCUPATIONS (SUCH AS COAL MINING).

9. LACK OF REFORM (cont.)
IN THE FACE OF TECHNOLOGICAL UN-EMPLOYMENT & POVERTY, WORKERS
COULD NOT VOTE
RESORT TO PROTESTS & RIOTS
INCUR FURTHER REPRESSION
THE POOR SUFFERED
THE LEISURE CLASS PROSPERED.

10. PLIGHT OF WOMEN WOMEN OF ALL CLASSES REGARDED AS INFERIOR TO MEN
UNDEREDUCATED
LIMITED VOCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
STRICT CODE OF SEXUAL BEHAVIOR
ALMOST NO LEGAL RIGHTS.

11. PLIGHT OF WOMEN (cont.)
THE CAUSE OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS WAS LARGELY IGNORED.

12. ROMANTICISM Embraced imagination and naturalness
Turned away from 18th century emphasis on reason and artifice
Fascination with youth and innocence
Question tradition and authority

14. ROMANTICISM (cont.) ROMANTIC POETS –
REJECTED PUBLIC, FORMAL, AND WITTY WORKS OF THE PREVIOUS CENTURY
EMBRACED PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
EMOTIONS
SIMPLE ,UNADORNED LANGUAGE

15. ROMANTIC POETS (cont.)
LYRIC FORM TO EXPRESS, FEELINGS, SELF-REVOLATION, & IMAGINATION
DEMOCRATIC ATTITUDE TOWARD AUDIENCE, “ A MAN SPEAKING TO MEN.”
TURNED TO AN INNER DREAM WORLD TO BLOCK OUT THE UGLY INDUSTRIAL AGE THEY LIVED IN
INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY
SYMPATHIZED WITH REBELS

16. ROMANTIC POETS (cont.) NATURE – TRANSFORMATIVE
NATURE – HUMAN MIND “MIRRORED” THE OTHER’S CREATIVE PROPERTIES

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

19. CONCEPT OF POETRY
POETRY WAS SEEN AS THE “SPONTA-NEOUS OVERFLOW OF POWERFUL FEELINGS”
THE ESSENCE OF POETRY WAS THE MIND, EMOTIONS, & IMAGINATION OF THE POET (NOT THE OUTER WORLD).

20. POETRY & THE POET
FIRST-PERSON LYRIC POEM BECAME THE MAJOR ROMANTIC LITERARY FORM, WITH “I” OFTEN REFERRING DIRECTLY TO THE POET.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SELF BE-CAME A MAJOR TOPIC OF ROMANTIC POETRY.

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

22. POETIC SPONTANEITY, FREEDOM
Initial act of poetic composition must:
Arise from impulse;
Be free from the rules inherited from the past
Rely on instinct, intuition, and feeling

23. NATURE
Accurate observation & description of wild nature important because,
Serves as a stimulus to thinking
Contributes to the resolution of personal problems
Resolution of crises

24. NATURE (cont.) LANDSCAPE
GIVEN HUMAN QUALITIES OR
SEEN AS A SYSTEM OF SYMBOLS REVEALING THE NATURE OF GOD.
CLOSENESS TO NATURE WAS SEEN AS BRINGING OUT HUMANITY’S INNATE GOODNESS.

25. GLORIFICATION OF THE COMMONPLACE
HUMBLE, RUSTIC SUBJECT MATTER & PLAIN STYLE BECAME THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECT & MEDIUM OF POETRY.

26. THE COMMONPLACE (cont.)
POETS SOUGHT TO REFRESH READERS’ SENSE OF WONDER ABOUT THE ORDINARY THINGS OF EXISTENCE, TO MAKE THE “OLD” WORLD SEEM NEW.

27. THE SUPERNATURAL & STRANGE
MANY ROMANTIC POEMS:
EXPLORE THE REALM OF MYSTERY & MAGIC
INCORPORATE MATERIALS FROM FOLKLORE & SUPERSTITION
OFTEN SET IN DISTANT OR FARAWAY PLACES

28. THE STRANGE (cont.)
RENEWED INTEREST IN THE MIDDLE AGES (AND THE BALLAD FORM) AS A BEAUTIFUL, EXOTIC, MYSTERIOUS BYGONE ERA.

29. THE STRANGE (cont.)
THERE WAS ALSO GREAT INTEREST IN UNUSUAL MODES OF EXPERIENCE,
VISIONARY STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
HYPNOTISM
DREAMS
DRUG-INDUCED STATES, AND SO FORTH.

30. THE STRANGE (cont.) GOTHIC Eerie and supernatural elements
Stories set in gloomy, medieval castles
Intention – make readers, blood run cold
Expressed a sense of helplessness about:
Things beyond control
Revolutions in Europe
Industrialization’s economic changes

32. INDIVIDUALISM & STRIVING
HUMAN BEINGS WERE SEEN AS ESSEN-TIALLY NOBLE & GOOD (THOUGH COR-RUPTED BY SOCIETY)
POSSESSING GREAT POWER & POTENTIAL THAT HAD FORMERLY BEEN ASCRIBED ONLY TO GOD.

33. INDIVIDUALISM (cont.) THERE WAS EMPHASIS ON
BELIEF IN DEMOCRATIC IDEALS
CONCERN FOR HUMAN LIBERTY
A GREAT OUTCRY AGAINST VARIOUS FORMS OF TYRANNY.

34. INDIVIDUALISM (cont.) THE HUMAN MIND WAS SEEN AS
CREATING (AT LEAST IN PART) THE WORLD AROUND IT
HAVING ACCESS TO THE INFINITE VIA THE FACULTY OF IMAGINATION.

35. INDIVIDUALISM (cont.)
REFUSING TO ACCEPT LIMITATIONS, HUMAN BEINGS SET INFINITE, INACCESSIBLE GOALS, THUS MAKING FAILURE & IMPERFECTION GLORIOUS ACCOMPLISHMENTS.

36. INDIVIDUALISM (cont.)
REFUSAL TO ACCEPT LIMITATIONS FOUND EXPRESSION IN BOLD POETIC EXPERIMENTATION.

37. INDIVIDUALISM (cont.)
MANY WRITERS ISOLATED THEMSELVES FROM SOCIETY TO FOCUS ON THEIR INDIVIDUAL VISION.
THEME OF EXILE WAS COMMON - THE ROMANTIC NON-CONFORMIST OFTEN SEEN AS A GREAT SINNER OR OUTLAW.

38. INDIVIDUALISM (cont) BYRONIC HERO
“Mad, bad, and dangerous to know.” – Lady Caroline Lamb, speaking of George Gordon, Lord Byron
“A man proud, moody, cynical, with defiance on his brow, and misery in his heart, a scorner of his kind, implacable in revenge, yet capable of deep and strong affection.”
Reckless, wounded manhood

39. ROMANTIC POETS Dominated by six poets: William Blake
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
William Wordsworth
Percy Bysshe Shelley
John Keats
George Gordon, Lord Byron

40. William Blake

42. William Wordsworth

44. Samuel Taylor Coleridge

46. Percy Bysshe Shelley

48. John Keats

50. George Gordon, Lord Byron