BRITISH ROMANTICISM
Characteristics of Romantic Poets
Romantic Literature (1798-1850)


“romantic” was commonly used to mean natural
phenomenon like sunsets, views of the landscape, or
rainbows
Romanticism was a reaction against Age of Reason
(Enlightenment)
 Age
of Reason –Logic, Science, Order
 Romanticism – Feelings, Nature, Imagination
Historical Happenings - Wars

French Revolution (1789)
 Marie
Antoinette says “let them eat cake”
 King Louis XVI and Marie beheaded

American Revolution (1776)
 American

fights Britain and wins independence
Britain defeats Napoleon at battle of Trafalgar
(1805)
Historical Happenings – British Society
Industrial Revolution - factories, assembly line,
steam power
 Urbanization - cities grow & expand
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Characteristics of Romantic Poets

Beauty of the Supernatural
Believed something existed beyond physical world
 Spirit world overthrows tyranny in govt and literature
 Focused on supernatural energy and beauty

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Championing of the Individual
Focused on an audience of those who would become the
middle class (a shift of balance btwn gentry and
farmers/workers)
 Free itself from traditional forms and subjects; freer lyric
language that emulated natural speech
 Interest in childhood (a person at their most natural state)

Characteristics of Romantic Poets

The Importance of Nature
Poet is only at peace when in nature
 Frequent use of personification with nature
 Nature became emotionally expressive; emotion is natural,
reason is learned
 Shift from faith in reason to faith in the senses, feeling, and
imagination


The Dangers of Technology
Disdain for technology and industrialism
 From interest in urban society to interest in the rural and
natural

Major Early Romantic Poets

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
 Considered
the nature poet
 Focused on ordinary people in rustic settings
 Considered the poet as superior to all other writers
 Famous poems:
 “I
Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”
 “We are Seven”
 “I Travelled Among Unknown Men”
Major Early Romantic Poets

William Blake (1757-1827)
 Known
during his lifetime for his engravings to illustrate
the works of other authors -- now he’s more famous for
his poetry
 Had a reliance on the imagination, idealization of
childhood, freedom of thought and expression, and an
idealization of nature.
 Two volumes of poetry – Song of Innocence and Song
of Experience
 Famous poems:
 “The
Lamb”
 “The Tyger”
 “The Chimney Sweeper”
Major Early Romantic Poets

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
A
Lake Poet
 Distinct supernatural element
 Strongly influenced American Romantics such as Poe
and Hawthorne
 Opium user (produces euphoric effects)
 Famous poems:
 “Rime
of the Ancient Mariner”
 “Kubla Kahn”
 “Christabel”
Later Romantic Poets

Lord Byron (1788-1824)
 Most
famous creations are his dark heroes (Byronic
heroes) --- stood out from ordinary humans as larger
than life
 Famous poems:
“
Later Romantic Poets

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
 Radical
non-conformist
 Campaigned for social justice
 Wife (Mary Shelley) wrote Frankenstein
 Famous poems:
 “Mutability”
 “Ozymandias”
 “Ode
to the West Wind”
Later Romantic Poets

John Keats (1795-1821)
 Considered
contact with poets as a threat to his
independence
 Shunned his contemporaries
 Famous poems:
 “Ode
to a Nightingale”
 “Ode on a Grecian Urn”
 “Ode on Melancholy”