1. The Romantic Period

2. Historical Context Response to the rationalism of the Enlightenment
Response to the French Revolution (1789)
The revolutionaries in France fought for “liberty, equality, and fraternity”
Ideas of the French Revolution influenced writers in England – they were inspired by the fight for democracy and the common man
Response to industrialism
Longing for nature and simplicity

3. Literary Context
British Romantic writers responded to the political and social climate of the time
Idealized nature, simplicity, and innocence in response to the ugliness of industrialization
Greater emphasis on the imagination
Compare to values of Englightenment-17th/18th Century Writers
Influenced by philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Rousseau believed that society was a force that imprisoned human nature
“Man was born free, and everywhere he is in chains.”
Most important genres were poetry and novels
Gothic novels (Frankenstein) and Historical Romances (Sir Walter Scott)

4. Pre-Romantic Poetry
Combination of forms of Neoclassical poetry (think Ben Jonson and his balanced, classical style) with a thematic focus on nature and the life of common folk
Emphasis shifts toward the expression of heightened feeling
Thomas Gray ( )
“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” (1762)
Setting
Imagery
Emotion

5. William Blake: A Pre-Romantic (1757-1827)
A visionary and genius – he was ahead of his time (and largely unappreciated while he lived)
Known for both poetry and art – made engravings to accompany his writing
Major books of poetry:
Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Explores themes of childhood and innocence
Shows darker side of human nature, disillusionment that comes with age
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
America A Prophecy
Europe A Prophecy
The First Book of Urizen
Blake saw the world in necessary opposites

6. Blake’s Artwork

7. Blake’s Artwork

8. Ancient of Days

9. Newton

10. Blake’s Poetry “The Lamb” p. 640 “The Tyger” p. 641
“The Chimney Sweeper” p. 643
“Infant Sorrow” p. 644

11. “The Chimney Sweeper”
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12. Romantic Poetry
1798 marks the beginning of Romantic poetry w/ publication of Lyrical Ballads
Lyrical Ballads - volume of poetry by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge
In the preface, they define good poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”
Poetry also “takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility”
These ideas about poetry were revolutionary and brought about new ways of writing

13. Characteristics of Romantic Thought and Poetry
Increasing interest in Nature, and in the natural, primitive and uncivilized way of life
Growing interest in wild and untamed scenery
Association of human moods with “moods” of Nature
Emphasis on a need for spontaneity in thought and action and expression
Power of imagination
Power of the individual and the need for freer and more personal expression

14. William Wordsworth
Grew up in the Lake District of England, spent childhood exploring the outdoors – loved nature from an early age

15. The Lake District

16. The Lake District

17. Wordsworth
Graduated from Cambridge in – spent time afterward traveling in France and embraced the ideals of the French Revolution
Shows these ideals in his poetry by rejecting conventional rules about language and form
Poetry features ordinary people, uses more natural language

18. “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey”
Written in 1798 during Wordsworth’s 2nd visit
Expresses a deep joy in returning to Tintern Abbey and how his first visit sustained him over five years
Look for key ideas of romanticism

19. Bellringer – January 24th
Considering the intellectual and artistic interests of the Romantics, why does fantasy and the fantastical figure so prominently in their works?

20. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Poet of fantasy and the imagination
Co-author of Lyrical Ballads w/ Wordsworth
Coleridge focuses on the strange and exotic
Both poets share same goal – to express essential truths about the human soul

21. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
As a child was an avid reader, had a very active imagination
Attended Cambridge
Health problems required him to take painkillers – became addicted to opium
Became friends w/ Wordsworth in 1795
Friendship dissolved in 1810

22. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
Considered to be Coleridge’s masterpiece
Published in Lyrical Ballads
Basis of the poem was a friend’s dream
Wordsworth helped him elaborate on the dream – suggested that the poem be centered around a crime that happens at sea

23. George Gordon, Lord Byron
2nd generation Romantic poet
Family was aristocratic but poor
Inherited his great-uncle’s title and became Lord Byron
Attended Cambridge, traveled in Europe and Middle East after graduating
Known for being wild and reckless from a young age

24. George Gordon, Lord Byron
First work, the book-length poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, made him famous overnight
Lived the life of a “celebrity poet”
Pet bear
“Mad, bad, and dangerous to know.”
Byronic hero – combination of Byron himself and his characters
A dark, brooding hero
Mysterious, passionate, irresistibly attractive

25. Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792-1822 2nd generation Romantic poet
Born into a wealthy family
Attended Oxford
got expelled for writing an essay supporting atheism
Saw society as corrupt
Married to Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (2nd wife) – author of Frankenstein
Was good friends w/ Lord Byron
Died in a boating accident at age 29

26. John Keats 1795-1821 2nd generation Romantic poet
Unlike Byron and Shelley, born to working-class parents
Studied medicine in London but gave it up to write poetry

27. John Keats
1818 – brother dies of TB but John meets the love of his life, Fanny Brawne
John and Fanny become engaged in 1819, he begins to get very sick w/ TB
Moves to Italy, dies in Rome in he was only 25
His legacy:
Lyric poetry
One of the best poets in the English language
Deeply devoted to the art of poetry
Very sensitive to beauty, time, and the contradictions of life (ex: sadness mixed with joy)

28. John Keats “Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water”
Epitaph on Keats’ tombstone in Rome

29. John keats “When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be” p. 748
“Ode on a Grecian Urn” p. 754
Ode: a lyric poem that pays respect to a person or thing, usually addressed directly by the speaker