Download The Romantic Period The Romantic Period in British Literature was

The Romantic Period
1785-1830
Whitechapel High Street, ca. 1894
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In
British
Lit.
The Romantic Period in British
Literature was a time of natureinspired poetry, political
questioning, and individualism.
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History of the Term: “Romantic”
• Originally a “romance” was any
lengthy prose or verse work
written in a Romantic language.
• “Romance” came to mean the
tales written during the medieval
period specifically concerned with
knights, chivalry and courtly love.
• Romanticism refers to a literary
movement characterized by:
• The idealization of nature
• Freedom of thought and expression
(poetry most exalted form)
• Heavy reliance on the imagination
and subjectivity
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Dating the Romantic Period in British Literature is easy.
Scholars attribute the onset of the period to a poet named
William Wordsworth who co- published a “new kind” of
poetry with his friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Their
work entitled “Lyrical Ballads” was published in 1798.
That’s the beginning of the Romantic Period according to
some scholars. Dating a literary period is only useful in the
sense that it reminds us of the historical context and world
view of its authors. We can’t really consider 1797, for
example, as a time completely without Romantic poetry!
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The Romantic Period
• 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 aristocracy to large-scale
employers, who found themselves against a large,
unhappy working class.
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Individualism
-Romantic literature
questions authority and
values individuals who
question authority.
Anything that infringes on
personal liberty is suspect
in this tradition.
 Rousseau championed
individualism and freedom
of thought: “I felt before I
thought.”
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The poets who chose the Romantic style at this time investigated
many topics. They wrote of time, love, death, art, and religion
among other topics. But one topic in particular was a favorite
among the Romantics - nature. As long as there have been poets,
there have been poems about nature, but these nature poems were
somehow different from the ones that had come before. These
poems were not quaint, predictable, over-simplified glorifications
of Nature on a purely observational level. These poems were
designed to communicate Nature’s transformative power. Nature
is portrayed as omnipresent and capable of altering human
perception and perspective. The settings of these poems,
therefore, are picturesque and exotic.
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ORDINARY = EXTRAORDINARY
The personal experiences documented in
the Romantic literature of this time are
epiphanies that alter the life of the speaker.
But the catalysts for such events may have
been ordinary, mundane, or less than
remarkable. This ability to describe
ordinary events as extraordinary is a
characteristic of Romantic literature.
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EMOTIONS
RULE
Because the Romantic poetry valued individual
experience, the rationalism previously admired was
replaced by a trust in one’s emotions. The literature in
England prior to this movement was witty, intellectual,
and social. Romanticism rejects the social ‘us’ and
embraces the ‘me’! Intuitions, feelings, and emotions
ruled. Man’s heart was a more valued guide than his
head. So, another characteristic of Romantic poetry is
this enlightenment by emotion.
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Another characteristic of
Romantic literature is the
inclusion of supernatural
elements.
Perhaps, for the
Romantics, Nature
was so powerful that
it could not be
contained. Nature
takes on a
mysterious,
sometimes even
scary quality in
literature of the
Romantics.
Supernatural
elements play a large
part in these works.
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The Romantics searched for personal experiences and
strove to communicate their power in meaningful
ways. To achieve this, the Romantic writers employed
simple and direct language. This was another way to
reject the Neoclassical movement that hoped to
emulate the ancient writers in lofty styles and
language. Think of it this way… our most personal
conversations, our most private, do not need elevated
language to impress or ring true. This simple language
is another Romantic characteristic.
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‘’Hey, Johnny, What are you rebelling against’’?
‘’What’ve you got’’?
-
Movies such as Marlon Brando’s ‘’Wild One’’
have popularized the ideal of an irresistible bad
boy, glamorous in his fatal passion, rivaling
society with a hell-bent glare.
This bad boy stereotype first entered our English
culture in the Romantic poetry of Lord Byron.
These ill-fated but beautifully emotional
characters are called “Byronic Heroes.”
Marlon Brando in
‘’The Wild One’’
Special thanks to Filmsite’s
‘’Wild One’’ page for the
image provided above. Click
here for more information
about the movie.
http://www.filmsite.org/wild.html
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Changes of Romanticism
• Feeling and Imagination vs. reason and logic
• Sensibility and Passion vs. science and satire
• Mixed Genres vs. Aristotles’ three unities (time,
place and action)
• Spontaneity and Lyricism vs. regular meters
and strict forms
• Grotesque and Complex Forms vs. accepted
and simple forms
• Idiosyncratic and concerned with Rosseau’s
“common man” vs. social conventions
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Poetry
• Wordsworth described all good poetry as “the
spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.”
• He believed that the source of all poetry was not in
external things, but in the individual poet.
• The lyric poem, expressing the poet’s own feelings and
temperament, became a major Romantic form.
• The natural scene became a primary poetic subject, and
poets described natural phenomena with an accuracy of
observation that had no earlier match.
• Poets bestowed attitudes and sentiments
on the landscape that earlier writers had
felt only for God, parents or a beloved.
• Humble, rustic life and plain style were
elevated and the wonder of ordinary
things was exalted.
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Authors from the Early
Romantic Period
Robert Burns
• “To a Mouse”
William Blake
• Songs of Innocence and
Experience
• “The Tyger”
• “The Lamb”
• “The Chimney Sweeper”
• “A Poison Tree”
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Cont.- Early Romantic
William Wordsworth
• Lyrical Ballads, with a Few
Other Poems
• “Lines Composed a Few Miles
Above Tintern Abbey
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner
• Kubla Khan
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Late Romantic Poets
George Gordon, Lord
Byron
• Don Juan
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Percy Bysshe Shelley
• “Oxymandias”
• “Ode to the West Wind”
• “To a Skylark”
John Keats
• “On First Looking into
Chapman’s Homer”
• “Ode to a Nightingale”
• “Ode to a Grecian Urn”
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• Nature Themes in Literature
• Isolationism
• Exile – especially of a
disinherited mind that
cannot find a spiritual
home in its native land
England’s Lake District
• Fascination with the
outlaws of myth, legend, or history
• Mysticism/Supernatural
• Results of the industrial revolution
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Although poetry was the
most expected Romantic
genre, Romantic novels
were also written. A popular
novel by Mary Shelley Frankenstein - is also
representative of the period.
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