1. The Romantic Period

2. Sources of Inspiration
Examination of inner feelings, emotions, imagination
The literature of the Middle Ages

3. Attitudes and Interests
Idealistic
Interested in the mysterious and supernatural
Concerned with the particular
Sought to develop new forms of expression
Romanticized the past
Tended toward excess and spontaneity
Appreciated folk traditions

4. Social Concerns Desired radical change Favored democracy
Concerned with the common people
Concerned with the individual
Felt that nature should be untamed

5. Two Generations of Poets
1st Generation included Robert Burns, William Blake, William Wordsworth, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
2nd Generation included George Gordon, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and John Keats.

6. Leaders of the Time
Robert Burns and William Blake were the forerunners of the romantic literature in their subject matter, themes, and style.
Burns published his Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (1896).
Blake produced his companion books, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.

7. The Official Beginning
The poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge teamed up to publish Lyrical Ballads (1798).
This publication marks the official beginning of the Romantic Period in English literature.

8. Romantic Prose Writers
Essayists included Charles Lamb, William Hazlitt, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Thomas De Quincey.
Novelists included Mary Shelley, Jane Austin, and Sir Walter Scott