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1798 - 1832

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1. Began with the Publication of a collection of poems called "Lyrical Ballads" (1798), a collaboration between William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge.
2. French Revolution in 1798 - British Parliament reforms in 1832
- Storming of Bastille (July 14, 1789)
- Revolutionaries who overthrew the Bastille limited the power of King Louis XVI, established the 1789 "Declaration of the Rights of Man," and set up a constitutional monarchy.
- By September 1792, the more radical Jacobins were in control and were calling for the King's head.
- Critical turning point in the era--- and was terrifying for the English wealthy and noblemen
- Meant the triumph of radical principles... could it spread across the English Channel?!?!
3. After the Beginning of America (1776)
England lost its 13 colonies... prestige AND confidence

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1792

Hundreds of French Aristocrats were beheaded. -- Some were only on King Louis' XVI side by duty... but they were still killed.

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Some people were scare of the times... others were not.

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Some people were scare of the times... others were not.

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Wordsworth and others like him were fascinated by the "new regime."

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Production shifted from "hand-made" to machine made = Faster & More

City population increased... increase in class dichotomy (a division or contrast between two things)

Land was no longer communally owned... which resulted in "landless" people... who immigrated to cities for easier work.

LAISSEZ FAIRE-- "let [people] do [as they please]"
- economic forces can operate freely without government.
- rich grew richer... poor suffered

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Power switches hands to this soldier
- Emerges as a dictator.... and then Emperor (1804)
- Becomes as ruthless as King Louis XVI (like Oliver Cromwell -- something about how power corrupts...)

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Conservative economics and political measures rose.

England became a repressive state -- outlawed collective bargaining and kept suspected spies or agitators in prison without trial.

War with Napoleon.
- 1805
- Battle of Trafalgar: Napleon's Navy was defeated
-1815 Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo

To people like Wordsworth... this just looked like one tyrant defeating another.

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The Romantic Poets became frustrated by England's resistance to political and social that COULD IMPROVE the culture.

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The Romantic Poets became frustrated by England's resistance to political and social that COULD IMPROVE the culture.

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They turned from more formal, public verse (Restoration/18th century style) to more private, spontaneous lyric poetry.

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They turned from more formal, public verse (Restoration/18th century style) to more private, spontaneous lyric poetry.

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Imagination, rather than reason, was the best response to the forces of change.

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To Summarize: "The poets of the Romantic period responded to social and economic changes caused by rapid industrialization and to governmental policies and ignored the problems of the poor."

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To Summarize: "The poets of the Romantic period responded to social and economic changes caused by rapid industrialization and to governmental policies and ignored the problems of the poor."

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So far, we have had Romance (as in Medieval Romances, aka. thee knight goeth on a quest-th") and roman (love).

Key Characteristics of all Romances (whatever type):
1. fascination with youth and innocence ("Growing-up")
2. Cyclical development of societies (questions tradition and authority)
3. Adaption to Change

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- Stressed imagination, beauty, nature, freedom
- Poetry spoke of personal experiences and emotions
- Poetry used simple, unadorned language
- Lyric poems --> best suited to express feeling, self-revelation, and imagination
------ short poems that focus on expressing feelings or tell a story
- Adopt democratic attitude towards their audiences -- "the poet was a man speaking to men"
- Created imagined world because their world was UGLY!
- Believed in individual liberty
- Sympathized with rebellion
- Nature was transformation... nature and human mind mirror each other

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A new kind of poetry which originated from Samuel Coleridge and William Wordsworth.

Poetry was no longer meant to argue, to satirize, or to persuade (like Alexander Pope). Witticism was no longer the goal. Poems were no longer polished and exact.

"Spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" - Wordsworth

Simple and unadorned languages that deals with commonplace (prosaic) subjects for a particular purpose.

Form = Lyric (a type of emotional songlike poetry, distinguished from dramatic and narrative poetry)

Romantic poets = nature poets... in that they focused on the beauty and majesty of  nature.

Nature is not Hostile but rather mysterious forces.

"[A poet] considers man and nature as essentially adapted to each other, and the mind of man as naturally a mirror of the fairest and most interesting properties of nature" (Wordsworth).

Imagination was KEY (but manifested differently for every  poet).

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What is a poet? "He is a man speaking to men."

The speaker in the poems are more emotional.

We are not "hearing" romantic poetry... but Overhearing or eavesdropping on a private conversation or soliloquy.

Must be convincing... because we are dealing with truths of the heart and the imagination.

"What the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth whether it existed before or not." - Wordsworth

This exploration of the emotional experience of ordinary people was REVOLUTIONARY.... like most experiences during this time.

Poet = special person endowed with sensibility, enthusiasm, tenderness, greater knowledge of human nature, comprehensive soul, a teacher and revealer, hold magical (divine) powers of understanding the soul and its activities, a "physician" to humanity, etc.... "Prophet, priest, and king."

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"A man proud, moody, cynical, with defiance on his brow, and misery in his heart, a scorner of his king, implacable in revenge, yet capable of deep and strong affection." - Thomas Babington Macaulay

Originated by George Gordon, Lord Byron

The Byronic Hero:
- devastatingly attractive
- fatally flawed
- intellectually searching
- incapable of compromise
- guilt ridden... forever brooding over a mysterious past sin
- painfully, yet defiantly alone

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Gothic style continued to grow in popularity...

Romanticism's involvement:
- Mansions, labyrinths,  landscapes, rustic battlements, and castles qualities mirroring the human mind and were gloriously imperfect (falling down, crumbling, overgrown).
- Ghosts, monsters, living statues -- imagination at its finest.
- Melancholia would enhance spiritual awareness.
- Ruins showed human failure.
- Unpredictable aspects of nature.
- Passionate and deep romantic affairs.

Jane Eyre (1847)

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