The Romantic
Period
The Romantic Period
Time
1798 The publication of Wordsworth and
Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads
1832 Sir Walter Scott’s death and the
passage of the first Reform Bill
Definition
• A revival of ancient Greek and Roman classical art
• Emphasis on the special qualities of each individual
• A change from outer world of social civilization to the inner world of the
human spirit
I. Historical, social and cultural background
1. Historically
Influences of French Revolution
Rousseau’s new ideas about Nature, Society and Education in Du Contract
Social and Emile
2. Economically
Influences of the Industrial Revolution
• Agricultural society replaced by a modern industrial one
• The capital class came to control
• Sharp conflicts between capital and labor
II. Literary history of the period
1. Literary trends
Views of Romantics in their creation of literary works
• Negative attitude toward the existing social and political conditions
• Individual as the very center of the life and all experience
II. Literary history of the period
2. Artistic features
(1) Characteristics in the literary works
• Passive or escapist ramanticists who focus their attention on matters
such as love, death.
e.g. Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southy
• Active romanticist who try to strengthen man’s will to live and raise
him against life around him against any yoke or restraints.
e.g. Shelly, Byron
• Great attention to the spiritual and emotional life of man
II. Literary history of the period
(2) Literary forms
Poetry
An age of poetry; Free from all; Common everyday life as subjects;
Bold experiments in poetic language, versification and design;
A variety of forms on original principles of organization and style
Prose
Newspapers, magazines and periodicals started to flourish
Novels
Novels of middle-upper class’s life; Historical novels; The Gothic novel
3. Major figures of this period
William Blake 1757-1827
Songs of Innocence
William Wordsworth 1770-1850
Lyrical Ballads, The Prelude, I wander Lonely as a Cloud
S.T. Coleridge 1772-1834
Lyrical Ballads, Kubla Khan
George Gordon Byron 1788-1824
Don Juan, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
Percy Bysshe Shelly 1792-1822
Queen Mab, Prometheus Unbound, Ode to the West Wind
III. Representatives of this period
William Wordsworth
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1. Biography

1770–William Wordsworth was born at Cockermouth, Cambarland, in the
family of an attorney. He received education at St. John's College,
Cambridge. He developed a keen love of nature as a youth. Another
important influence on his life was the French Revolution.
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2. Literary works
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Lyrical Ballads

The Prelude
William Wordsworth
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3. Major theme

Common life is Wordsworth's only subject of literary interest. The joys &
sorrows of the common people are his themes.
His sympathy always goes to the suffering poor. His short poems can be
classified into two groups: poems about nature and poems about human
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life.
William Wordsworth
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4. Analysis of his masterpiece

(1) Brief introduction of the poem

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (1)
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Wordsworth is regarded as a "worshipper of nature." He can penetrate to
the heart of things & give the reader the very life of nature.
(2) Theme
The poem consists of four 6-lined stanzas of iambic tetrameter with a
rhyme scheme of ababcc in each stanza.
(3) Artistic features
William Wordsworth is the leading figure of the English romantic poetry,
the focal poetic voice of the period. His is a voice of searchingly
comprehensive humanity & one that inspires his audience to see the world
freshly, sympathetically & naturally.
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III. Representatives of this period
Percy Bysshe Shelley

1. Biography

1792 – He was born into a wealthy family at Sussex. Though gentle by
nature, his rebellious qualities were cultivated in his early years.

1813 – He published his Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem
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2. Literary works

Lyrics: "To a Skylark" & "Ode to the West Wind"

Poetic drama: Prometheus Unbound (1820)
Percy Bysshe Shelley
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3. Major theme

Shelley grew up with violent revolutionary ideas under the influence of
the free thinkers like Hume & Godwin, so he held a life-long aversion to
cruelty

He predicted that only trough gradual & suitable reforms of the existing
institutions could benevolence be universally established & none of the
evils would survive in this "genuine society", where people could live
together happily, freely & peacefully.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
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4. Analysis of his masterpiece

(1) Brief introduction of the poem
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A Song: Men of England (1)

This poem was written in 1819, the year of the Peterloo Massacre. It is
unquestionably one of Shelley's greatest political lyrics.
(2) Theme
The song contains eight quatrains; generally each line contains 4 accented
syllables. The rhyme scheme for each stanza is uniformly aabb.
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(3) Artistic features
His style abounds in personification & metaphor & other figures of speech
which describe vividly what we see & feel, or express what passionately
moves us.