ROMANTICISM

a term used to describe a movement in art, literature, and music that valued freedom of expression

ROMANTICS believed that:- the innermost emotions should be expressed- art should please the senses- imagination was more important than reason

had a deep connection with the past

Emotions Passion Individuality

ROMANTICSvalued

“Rejecting the ordered rationality of the Enlightenment as mechanical, impersonal, and

artificial, the Romantics turned to the emotional directness of personal

experience and to the boundlessness of individual imagination and aspiration.” 

- Chris Baldick

Age of Revolution

May refer to the...

liberating changes in the

arts and literature

Age of Revolution

May refer to the...

profound social and

cultural changes

Romantic Era

Culture of Rebellion

AMERICAN and FRENCH REVOLUTIONS brought a

great impact within the borders of England

Events outside England, such as the French Revolution, are internalized in Romantic literature as a part of the debates on more relevant, internal issues in English politics, such as the preceding American Revolution and the imminent Irish Uprising of 1798. 

Authors William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey sympathized with the French Revolution.

Used their poetry as a means of dealing with the trauma of the Revolution’s bloody transformation and the disappointment of democratic hopes

Authors Thomas Moore, Thomas Campbell, and Samuel Rogers, used their poetry to highlight emerging issues of nationalism.

Romantics Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley sympathized with the principles of equality and individuality embodied by the Revolution’s beginnings and embraced these principles to critique English government .

Romantic Era

OTHER FACTS

ENGLAND

Transforming from agricultural nation to one focused on manufacture, trade and industry

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

ENGLAND

“Two Nations”

1) The rich and privileged - who owned the nation’s burgeoning means of industrial production

2) The poor and powerless - who were more and more forced from agricultural roots to life in industrial cities

Styles and Values

belief in children's innocence

and wisdom

Styles and Values

nature as beauty and

truth

Styles and Values

Styles and Values

feelings and emotions

Styles and Values

will or desire as personal

motivation

Styles and Values

nostalgia for the past

“SHOPPING”

entered English vocabulary reflecting society’s newfound love for buying the goods that imperial colonization and industry could produce

CLOTHING

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Literature

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• Romantic period began in 1798 with the publication of Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems, a collaboration by two young poets, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth.

Literature

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Romantic Literature

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Romantic poets

• wrote about personal experiences and emotions

Characteristics of Romantic Poetry

• saw nature as transformative

• embraced imagination and naturalness

Characteristics of Romantic Prose

Romantic prose writers

• emphasized emotions, imagination and intuition

• focused on connecting with the natural world

• gave importance to one’s individuality

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Literature

PROSE WRITERS

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Mary Shelly

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was an English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer.

Famous work: Frankenstein

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Jane Austen

Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature. 

Famous work: Pride and Prejudice

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Sir Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet. He was the first modern English-language author to have a truly international career in his lifetime.

Famous work: Ivanhoe

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Literature

POETS

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William Blake

William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognized during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age.

Famous work: Songs of Innocence and of Experience

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Samuel Taylor ColeridgeSamuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets.

Famous work: Rime of the Ancient Mariner

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Lord Byron

George Gordon Byron commonly known simply as Lord Byron, was an English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement.

Famous work: She Walks in Beauty

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Percy ShelleyPercy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets, and is regarded by some critics as amongst the finest lyric poets in the English language. He was the husband of the English novelist, Mary Shelley.

Famous work: Love’s Philosophy

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John Keats John Keats was an English Romantic poet. He was one of the main figures of the second generation of Romantic poets along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, despite his work having been in publication for only four years before his death.

Famous work: Ode on a Grecian Urn

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William WordsworthFather of Romanticism

Early Life

Born on April 7, 1770, in Cockermouth, Cumberland, England His mother died when he was 7 Orphaned at 13 Wrote his first poem in Hawkshead Grammar School Graduated in Cambridge University Visited France in the midst of French Revolution A supporter of the new government’s republican ideals Fell in love with Annette Vallon who became pregnant Separated in 1793

Cambridge University

Hawkshead Grammar

School

Annette Vallon and her daughter, Caroline

Young Poet 1795

- received an inheritance that allowed him to live with his younger sister, Dorothy

- met Samuel Taylor Coleridge, became good friends and worked together on Lyrical Ballads

Wed Mary Hutchinson, who gave birth to the first of their five children in 1803

Produced several poems- Tintern Abbey- The Prelude- Lucy- Ode: Intimations of Immortality- I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud

Dorothy Wordsworth

Mary Hutchinson

His Revolving Poetry and Philosophy Rejected radicalism"political change must come from the basic source of society"

Moved his family to a new home in the Lake District 1812 - deaths of two of his children Reached a zenith of creativity between 1798 and 1808 1843 - became England's poet laureate Died on April 23, 1850 at the age of 80

I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud

Activity

Divide yourselves into 4 groups and

discuss the poem "I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud" within the group. Present

your ideas or interpretation to the

class after the discussion.