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The Romantic Period. THE ROMANTIC PERIOD 1789-1832 Began with the French Revolution in 1789 Ended with the Parliamentary reforms of 1832 Shortest major era in English literary history Dominated by six poets: William Blake William Wordsworth Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
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The Romantic Period • THE ROMANTIC PERIOD • 1789-1832 • Began with the French Revolution in 1789 • Ended with the Parliamentary reforms of 1832 • Shortest major era in English literary history • Dominated by six poets: William Blake William Wordsworth Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The Romantic Period Percy Bysshe Shelley John Keats George Gordon, Lord Byron
The Romantic Period • Politics and Economics • England changed from agricultural to industrial • French revolution had impact • Democratic ideals appealed to idealists and liberals such as Wordsworth • “September Massacre” in 1792 disillusioned many Wordsworth included
The Romantic Period • Napoleon Bonaparte emerged as dictator after execution of Louis XVI—ruthless as kings before him—defeated at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 and The Battle of Waterloo in 1815
The Romantic Period • Changes of the Industrial Revolution: • Production switched to machines and factories • City populations increased • Communal land used by small farmers taken over by private owners—resulted in large numbers of landless people—migrated to city for work
The Romantic Period • “laissez-faire” economic policy—rich get richer/poor get poorer • Children suffered the most-used as beasts ofburden in coal mines—no child labor laws
The Romantic Period • Romantic poets frustrated by England’s resistance to political and social change • Turned from formal, public verse of The Restoration to more private, spontaneous, lyric poetry • Believed imagination, not reason, is best response to the forces of change
The Romantic Period • The Term “Romantic” • A look backward and forward in time • Signifies both beginnings and endings • Great achievement was to create new forms oflyric poetry • Comes from the term “romance”-a genre of popular medieval literature-adventure not love
The Romantic Period • The Term “Romantic” • Signifies a fascination with youth & innocence • Needs to question tradition & authority-idealism • Demands a stronger awareness of change-adapt • Interrelationship of Nature, Mind, & Imagination
The Romantic Period • Lyrical Ballads-set out rules of romantic poetry • Wordsworth & Coleridge collaborated • These poets often called nature poets
The Romantic Period “Nature” to Romantic poets: • strong sense of nature’s mysterious forces • psychological conception of nature • felt nature & human mind act upon each other • religious-cause of this interaction is a higher power • creative power is the imagination
The Romantic Period The Idea of Poet • Wordsworth- “. . . a man speaking to men”(in order to accomplish something else) • Not Augustan reasoning, but a speaking from the heart • Romantics were concerned with the truths of the heart and the imagination
The Romantic Period Other Forms of Literature The Novel: • Jane Austen • Sir Walter Scott • Charlotte Bronte • Emily Bronte
The Romantic Period The Essay: • Charles Lamb • William Hazlitt Poetry: • Wordsworth • Coleridge • Shelley • Keats • Byron
The Romantic Period Journals and Letters: • Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley • Dorothy Wordsworth The Gothic Novel: • Mary Shelley