Romantic Period in English Literature: 1785-1830

ROMANTIC PERIOD IN ENGLISH LITERATURE: 1785-1830

A BRIEF OVERVIEW

SOCIAL & POLITICAL CONTEXT 

PERIOD OF GREAT CHANGE IN ENGLAND: 

AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY W/ POWERFUL LANDHOLDING ARISTOCRACY WAS GIVING WAY TO MODERN INDUSTRIAL NATION OF LARGE-SCALE EMPLOYERS & A GROWING, RESTLESS MIDDLE CLASS.

PERIOD OF CHANGE (cont.) 

AMERICAN & FRENCH REVOLUTIONS WERE HUGELY IMPORTANT ELEMENTS OF THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE.

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THREATS TO EXISTING SOCIAL STRUCTURE WERE BEING POSED BY NEW, REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS.

PERIOD OF CHANGE (cont.) 

A TIME OF HARSH POLITICAL REPRESSION IN ENGLAND, IN SPITE OF NEED FOR CHANGES BROUGHT ABOUT BY THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION.

PERIOD OF CHANGE (cont.) 

MILL TOWNS GREW, THE LANDSCAPE WAS INCREASINGLY SUBDIVIDED, FACTORIES SPEWED POLLUTION OVER SLUMS, & THE POPULATION WAS INCREASINGLY DIVIDED INTO RICH & POOR.

PERIOD OF CHANGE (cont.) 

REFORMS DID NOT OCCUR BECAUSE THE PHILOSOPHY OF LAISSEZ-FAIRE (“LET ALONE”) PREVAILED.

LACK OF REFORM (cont.) 

CONSEQUENCES WERE LOW WAGES, HORRIBLE WORKING CONDITIONS, LARGE-SCALE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN & CHILDREN IN BRUTALLY HARD OCCUPATIONS (SUCH AS COAL MINING).

LACK OF REFORM (cont.) 

IN THE FACE OF TECHNOLOGICAL UNEMPLOYMENT & POVERTY, WORK-ERS —WHO COULD NOT VOTE—HAD TO RESORT TO PROTESTS & RIOTS, INCURRING FURTHER REPRESSION.

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BUT WHILE THE POOR SUFFERED, THE LEISURE CLASS PROSPERED.

PLIGHT OF WOMEN 

WOMEN OF ALL CLASSES WERE REGARDED AS INFERIOR TO MEN, WERE UNDEREDUCATED, HAD LIMITED VOCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES, WERE SUBJECT TO A STRICT CODE OF SEXUAL BEHAVIOR, AND HAD ALMOST NO LEGAL RIGHTS.

PLIGHT OF WOMEN (cont.) 

IN SPITE OF THE ABOVE, THE CAUSE OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS WAS LARGELY IGNORED.

ROMANTICISM 

TERM “ROMANTICISM” IS DIFFICULT TO DEFINE B/C OF THE VARIETY OF LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS, AND WRITERS OF THE PERIOD WERE ONLY LATER LABELLED “ROMANTIC.”

ROMANTICISM (cont.) 

BUT MANY HAD A SENSE OF “THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE”—THAT A GREAT RELEASE OF CREATIVE ENERGY WAS OCCURING AS ACCOMPANIMENT TO POLITICAL & SOCIAL REVOLUTION. IT WAS SEEN AS AN AGE OF NEW BEGININGS & LIMITLESS POSSIBILITIES.

POETIC THEORY & PRACTICE 

WORDSWORTH TRIED TO ARTICULATE THE SPIRIT OF THE NEW POETRY IN THE PREFACE TO LYRICAL BALLADS (1800, 1802).

CONCEPT OF POETRY, THE POET 

POETRY WAS SEEN AS THE “SPONTANEOUS OVERFLOW OF POWERFUL FEELINGS”; THE ESSENCE OF POETRY WAS THE MIND, EMOTIONS, & IMAGINATION OF THE POET (NOT THE OUTER WORLD).

POETRY & THE POET (cont.) 

FIRST-PERSON LYRIC POEM BECAME THE MAJOR ROMANTIC LITERARY FORM, WITH “I” OFTEN REFERRING DIRECTLY TO THE POET. 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SELF BECAME A MAJOR TOPIC OF ROMANTIC POETRY.

POETRY & THE POET (cont.) 

POETS OFTEN SAW THEMSELVES AS PROPHETS IN A TIME OF CRISIS, REVISING THE PROMISE OF DIVINE REDEMPTION IN TERMS OF A “HEAVEN” ON EARTH.

POETIC SPONTANEITY, FREEDOM 

INITIAL ACT OF POETIC COMPOSITION MUST ARISE FROM IMPULSE; BE FREE FROM THE RULES INHERITED FROM THE PAST; AND RELY ON INSTINCT, INTUITION, & FEELING.

NATURE 

IMPORTANCE OF ACCURATE OBSERVATION & DESCRIPTION OF WILD NATURE, WHICH SERVES AS A STIMULUS TO THINKING & TO THE RESOLUTION OF PERSONAL PROBLEMS & CRISES.

NATURE (cont.) 

LANDSCAPE WAS OFTEN GIVEN HUMAN QUALITIES OR SEEN AS A SYSTEM OF SYMBOLS REVEALING THE NATURE OF GOD.

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CLOSENESS W/ NATURE WAS SEEN AS BRINGING OUT HUMANITY’S INNATE GOODNESS.

GLORIFICATION OF THE COMMONPLACE 

HUMBLE, RUSTIC SUBJECT MATTER & PLAIN STYLE BECAME THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECT & MEDIUM OF POETRY.

THE COMMONPLACE (cont.) 

POETS SOUGHT TO REFRESH READERS’ SENSE OF WONDER ABOUT THE ORDINARY THINGS OF EXISTENCE, TO MAKE THE “OLD” WORLD SEEM NEW.

THE SUPERNATURAL & STRANGE 

MANY ROMANTIC POEMS EXPLORE THE REALM OF MYSTERY & MAGIC; INCORPORATE MATERIALS FROM FOLKLORE, SUPERSTITION, ETC.; & ARE OFTEN SET IN DISTANT OR FARAWAY PLACES.

THE STRANGE (cont.) 

RELATED TO THIS WAS A RENEWED INTEREST IN THE MIDDLE AGES (AND THE BALLAD FORM) AS A BEAUTIFUL, EXOTIC, MYSTERIOUS BYGONE ERA.

THE STRANGE (cont.) 

THERE WAS ALSO GREAT INTEREST IN UNUSUAL MODES OF EXPERIENCE, SUCH AS VISIONARY STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS, HYPNOTISM, DREAMS, DRUGINDUCED STATES, AND SO FORTH.

INDIVIDUALISM & STRIVING 

HUMAN BEINGS WERE SEEN AS ESSENTIALLY NOBLE & GOOD (THOUGH CORRUPTED BY SOCIETY), AND AS POSSESSING GREAT POWER & POTENTIAL THAT HAD FORMERLY BEEN ASCRIBED ONLY TO GOD.

INDIVIDUALISM (cont.) 

THERE WAS A GREAT BELIEF IN DEMOCRATIC IDEALS, CONCERN FOR HUMAN LIBERTY, & A GREAT OUTCRY AGAINST VARIOUS FORMS OF TYRANNY.

INDIVIDUALISM (cont.) 

THE HUMAN MIND WAS SEEN AS CREATING (AT LEAST IN PART) THE WORLD AROUND IT, AND AS HAVING ACCESS TO THE INFINITE VIA THE FACULTY OF IMAGINATION.

INDIVIDUALISM (cont.) 

REFUSING TO ACCEPT LIMITATIONS, HUMAN BEINGS SET INFINITE, INACCESSIBLE GOALS, THUS MAKING FAILURE & IMPERFECTION GLORIOUS ACCOMPLISHMENTS.

INDIVIDUALISM (cont.) 

THIS REFUSAL TO ACCEPT LIMITATIONS FOUND EXPRESSION IN BOLD POETIC EXPERIMENTATION.

INDIVIDUALISM (cont.) 

MANY WRITERS DELIBERATELY ISOLATED THEMSELVES FROM SOCIETY TO FOCUS ON THEIR INDIVIDUAL VISION. 

THEME OF EXILE WAS COMMON, W/ THE ROMANTIC NON-CONFORMIST OFTEN SEEN AS A GREAT SINNER OR OUTLAW.

A Definition of “Romanticism” 

“A literary movement, and profound shift in sensibility, which took place in Britain and throughout Europe roughly between 1770 and 1848. Intellectually it marked a violent reaction to the Enlightenment. Politically it was inspired by the revolutions in America and France…Emotionally it expressed an extreme assertion of the self and the value of individual experience…together with the sense of the infinite and the transcendental. Socially it championed progressive causes…The stylistic keynote of Romanticism is intensity, and its watchword is ‘Imagination’” (Drabble 842-843 [The Oxford Companion to English Literature])

Put It In Context Before Restoration (or Neoclassicism) 1660-1798 Order, reason, clarity, logic, scientific, universal experiences Gulliver’s Travels 

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After The Victorian Age 1833 – 1901 Depicting realism and naturalism (detailloaded), optimism education, morality A Tale of Two Cities 

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Restoration versus Romanticism        

Scientific observation of outer world; logic Pragmatic (practical) Science, technology General, universal experiences Optimistic about present Moderation, self-restraint Aristocratic; society as whole Nature controlled by humans

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Examine inner feelings, emotions, imagination Idealistic (optimistic) Mysterious, supernatural Concerned with the particular (very specific) Romanticizing the past Excess, spontaneity Concerned with common people and individuals Felt nature should be untamed

Important Dates 

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1775-1783: American Revolution (fighting ended in 1781) 1789-1815: French Revolution 1798: Publication of Lyrical Ballads 1798-1832: Romantic Period

“The Big Six” Romantic Poets William Blake William Wordsworth  Samuel Taylor Coleridge Percy Bysshe Shelley  John Keats George Gordon, Lord Byron 

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Other Romantic Writers      

Jane Austen Leigh Hunt Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Sir Walter Scott Robert Southey

Notable Romantic Painters 

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John Constable (painting of “Flatford Mill” [1817] to the right) J.M.W. Turner William Blake Claude Monet Eugene Delacroix

Notable Romantic Musicians       

Beethoven Franz Schubert Claude Debussy Verdi Chopin Franz Josef Haydn Mozart

Lyrical Ballads 

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First published anonymously in 1798 as Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems by Wordsworth and Coleridge Includes “Tintern Abbey” and “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” In the Preface, Wordsworth writes that good poetry is the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”

Key Romantic Themes         

Imagination Egotism The particular The remote The primitive The medieval The East The sublime Nature

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Irrational experiences (dreams and drugs) Awareness of process and current conceptions of art and introspection Longing for the infinite encounter through intense experiences of sublime nature (storms, mountains, oceans)

Key Events of Romantic Age       

1798: Lyrical Ballads published 1812: Byron publishes Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage 1813: Jane Austen publishes Pride and Prejudice 1818: Mary Shelley publishes Frankenstein 1819: Percy Bysshe Shelley publishes “Ode to the West Wind” 1820: John Keats publishes “Ode on a Grecian Urn” 1832: First Reform Act extends voting rights and end of the Romantic Age

Elegy 

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Definition: “An elegy is a lament setting out the circumstances and character of a loss. It mourns for a dead person, lists his or her virtues, and seeks consolation beyond the momentary event. It is not associated with any required pattern, cadence, or repetition.” Examples: “Elegy Written in a Country Courtyard” by Thomas Gray and “Adonais” by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Pastoral 

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Definition: “The pastoral is a mode of poetry that sought to imitate and celebrate the virtues of rural life (a nature poem).” Examples: “To My Sister” by William Wordsworth and “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats

Ode 

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Definition: “An ode is a formal address to an event, a person, or a thing not present. There are three types: Pindaric, Horatian, and Irregular.” Examples: “Ode to the West Wind” by Percy Bysshe Shelley and “To Autumn” by John Keats

Lyric 

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Definition: “An ancient subdivision of poetry. One of poetry’s three categories, the others being narrative and dramatic. The poet addresses the reader directly and states his own feelings.” Examples: “Frost at Midnight” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and “To Spring” by William Blake

Sonnet 

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Definition: “A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines, usually iambic. There are two prominent types: the Petrarchan and the Shakespearean.” Examples: “Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802” by William Wordsworth and “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley