2. The Flowering of Romanticism

3. Beginning of the Period
Beginning marked by the publication of Lyrical Ballads by Coleridge and Wordsworth.
Most significant historical event of the Romantic period was the French Revolution.
Jean Jacques Rousseau ( ) French influence, and considered the father of romanticism.

4. 1st edition published in 1798
Lyrical Ballads
1st edition published in 1798
2nd edition published in 1800, contained an extensive preface, written by Wordsworth, but planned with Coleridge
became the “real language of men”
drew on the powers of ordinary speech

5. Romantic subjects
the natural or commonplace
the supernatural or “romantic”
Both were treated similarly to make the reader aware of the human mind and emotions.

6. What does “Romantic” mean?
romance - refers to the highly imaginative medieval tales of knightly adventure written in the original Roman (or romance) language: Latin.
Not love between a man and a woman as the word is used today.

7. History-Revolution & Reaction
Near the end of the 18th Century, three major revolutions disturbed the English sense of security and well-being
The American Revolution
The French Revolution
The Industrial Revolution

8. Causes English to see a cry for democracy
American Revolution
Causes English to see a cry for democracy
Loss of the thirteen colonies causes economic loss, loss of prestige and loss of confidence

9. Napoleon Bonaparte emerges as dictator
French Revolution
Being at first exhilarating to the idealists and liberals in England, it becomes a disappointment with the “September Massacre”
King Louis XVI beheads hundreds with the latest invention the guillotine.
Napoleon Bonaparte emerges as dictator

10. Industrial Revolution
Transforms European society
violent in its impact on human life
James Watt perfected the steam engine in 1765
industries that depended on traditional hand labor were converted into mills and factories where machines did the work.

11. The Industrial Revolution sharply divided England into two classes
1. Wealthy property owners
2. Poor class of wage earners deprived of virtually all rights and possessions
Rich got richer - Poor got poorer (almost virtually wiped out the middle class).

12. England suffered from lack of leadership
Rulers
England suffered from lack of leadership
King George III declared insane in Son takes over throne from
Prince of Wales who acted as Regent
Years of regency - time of lavish social display, indulgence of upper class
Regent - one who governs a kingdom in the minority, absence, or disability of the sovereign

13. Marked by the death of Sir Walter Scott
End of the Period
Marked by the death of Sir Walter Scott
and the passage of the first reform bill in Parliament

14. Literature - Romantic Writers
were affected by the promise and disappointment of the French Revolution
were affected by the controlling effects of the Industrial Revolution
Romanticism sought to free itself from the rules and standards of eighteenth-century literature and to open up new areas of vision and expression

15. The Industrial Revolution’s exploitation of the working class underlie the romantic writers’ love of the unspoiled natural world and remote country settings

16. Literature - Characteristics
Emphasized imagination and emotion
Concerned with the particulars
valued of the individual
took a revitalized interest in medieval subjects and settings
Most romantic writers saw themselves as reacting against the thought and literary practice of their predecessors

17. Writers - First Generation of Poets
Born before period began
Blake
Wordsworth
Coleridge

18. Lived most of his life in London He was an engraver and illustrator
William Blake
Lived most of his life in London
He was an engraver and illustrator
Believed innocence and experience were contrary states of the human soul.
Spent final years of his life in poverty.

19. lived longer than any other romantic poet
William Wordsworth
lived longer than any other romantic poet
felt there was a deep kinship between nature and the soul of humankind
greatest nature poet

20. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Brought magic to his poetry by including the supernatural
Never completed his college degree
Briefly served in the military
Planned a utopian community in America
His addiction to opium ruined his friendship with WW - reconciled later in life

21. Writers - Second Generation of Poets
major inspiration from Wordsworth & Coleridge
felt the founders of English had given values to an unjust & reactionary society
moral & political disillusionment
Byron
Shelley
Keats

22. George Gordon, Lord Byron
born of aristocratic family
attended prestigious private schools & universities
left England because of social pressures against his unconventional personal life
died prematurely in distant Mediterranean country
Similar lives Byron & Shelley – differences were in their poetic careers

23. born of aristocratic family
Percy Bysshe Shelley
born of aristocratic family
attended prestigious private schools & universities
left England because of social pressures against his unconventional personal life
died prematurely in distant Mediterranean country

24. Studied medicine at age 15 Youngest of the second generation
John Keats
Studied medicine at age 15
Youngest of the second generation
first to die of tuberculosis in a distant Mediterranean country
Barely 5 feet tall

25. The End