1. The Romantic Period

2. The Romantic Period
Began in 1785, the year Blake and Burns published their first poems.
Ended in 1830, by which time the major writers of the preceding century were either dead or no longer productive.
It was a turbulent time period, when England changed from a primarily agricultural society to a modern industrial nation.
Wealth and power shifted from the landholding aristo cracy to large-scale employers, who found themselves against a large working class.

3. Revolution American and French Revolutions were very important.
They posed a threat to the current way of life at that time.
Viaduct across the Great Northern Railway, 1851

4. The Industrial Revolution
Landscape became subdivided.
Factories spewed pollution.
People lived in slum areas.
Two classes—rich and poor.
Low wages
Long work hours
Women and small children
work.

5. England’s Lake District
Themes in Literature
Nature
Humble, rustic subjects
Isolationism, exile
Supernatural, mystery, magic
Love of distant places
Interest in bygone eras
Focus on individualism
Creative imagination
Importance of symbolism
Freedom
England’s Lake District

6. Romantic Period vs. Neoclassic Period
Stessed reason and judgment
Valued society
Followed authority
Interested in science
Romantic
Stressed imagination and emotion
Valued individuals
Strove for freedom
Interested in Supernatural

7. Romantic Period Art Work

8. John Constable