romantic period intro

coleridge on the poet

"brings the whole soul of mankind into activity" by employing "that synthetic and magical power....the imagination"

shelley called poets

"the unacknowledged legislators of the world"

3 useful meanings of word romantic as a historical term

1. a child's sense of wonder -signifies a fascination with youth and innocence -particularly the freshness and wonder of a child's perception of the world -seemed to resemble the age's sense of a "new dawn" and what wordsworth saw in his first experience in france as "human nature being born again" 2. social idealism -view of the cyclical development of human societies -stage when people need to question tradition and authority in order to imagine better (happier, fairer, healthier) ways to live 3. adaptation to change -suggests an ability to adapt to change -an acceptance of change rather than a rigid rejection of it -up to the civil war, western societies met conditions necessary for industrialization -this demanded that people acquire a stronger awareness of change and that they try to find ways to adapt to it *in this sense we still live w the legacy of the romantic period*

dates

1798-1832

the three poets ("second generation") of the 6 that began their short careers in the second decade of the new century but died before 1825

Percy Bysshe shelley john keats george gordon, lord byron

keat wrote that a poet is

a "physician" to all humanity and "pours out a balm upon the world"

england changed from a _____ to a _______ with a ______

agricultural society industrial nation large and restless working class concentrated in the teeming mill towns

what was in the "few other poems"

coleridge's long narrative The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Wordsworth's Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey

word romantic

comes from the term romance, one of the most popular genres of medieval literature later, romantic writers self-consciously used the elements of romance in attempt to go back beyond the refinements of neoclassical literature to older types of writing they saw as more genuine romance genre also allowed writers to explore new, more psychological and mysterious aspects of human experience today romantic is often a negative label used to describe sentimental writing

what changed in england at this time

conservatives became more rigid than ever instituted sever repressive measures: -outlawed collective bargaining -kept suspected spies or agitators in prison without a trial -long war against napolean (after brief peace from 1802-1803)

english sentiment

conservatives felt they had saved country from a tyrant and chaos early supporters of the revolution felt betrayed -waterloo was simply the defeat of one tyrant by another

6 romantic poets

deeply aware (in their own ways) of their revolutionary times dedicated to bringing about change no illusions about their very limited political power but they believed in the force of literature frustrated by england's resistance to political and social change to improve conditions, the poets turned from the formal, public verse of eighteenth century augustans to a more pricate, spontaneous lyric poem

who felt exhilarated by the events in france

democratic idealists and liberals like wordsworth -made trips to france to view the new regime firsthand when the war began and napolean rose, many liberals turned against france

changes brought about by industrial revolution

england was first nation to experience the effects of the industrial revolution -goods went from being made by hand at home to factories where machines worked many times faster than humans -city populations increased bc factories were there -resulted in desperate living conditions that would appall even the most hardened social worker today -communal land once shared by small farmers was taken over by individual owners -transformed fields into vast private parks, generously stocked with deer for their own christmas hunts -others divided the land neatly into privately held fields -resulted in large numbers of landless people -some migrated to cities in search of work or relied on the forms of charity of the time (poorhouse and begging)

describe the war

english guns first defeated napoleon's navy at the battle of trafalgar 1815-sent napoleon's army packing at waterloo, belgium

how did political events in america and france in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries affect english society

f

what is another way to date the romantic period

french revolution (1789) to the parliamentary reforms of 1832 (laid the political foundations for modern britain)

what did wordsworth declare in the preface of lyrical ballads

he was writing a new kind of poetry that he hoped would be "well adapted to interest mankind permanently" -subject matter would be different from that of earlier giants of poetry (like alexander pope) who used poetry to satirize or persuade the reader with argumentative techniques -wordsworth - good poetry was "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings -should use simple, unadorned language to deal with commonplace subjects

what did the romantics cling to

hopes for the "dawn of a new era" through peaceful change -provoked and shaped by upheavals in english life brought about by industrial revolution

what does romantic poems presentation of imaginative experiences as powerful/moving suggest

human imagination is also kind of desire - motive that drives the mind to discover things that it can't learn by rational or logical thinking

what did all romantics seem to believe

imagination could be stimulated by both nature and the mind itself they had a strong sense of nature's mysterious forces which both inspire the poet (as they do in Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind") and hint at the causes of the great changes taking place in the world

human imagination moves the mind

in mysterious ways to imitate the powers of its maker

the poet, in sum

is someone human beings and society can't live without

economic philosophy of the time

laissez faire "let people do as they please" new economic forces should be allowed to operate freely without gov interference

effects of american revolution on england

loss of 13 colonies -great economic loss -also a loss of prestige and confidence

how should romantic poets be thought as

mistake to think of them as nature poets they were mind poets who sought a deeper understanding of the bond between human beings and the world of the senses their search led them to a third more mysterious element present in both the mind and nature

form of this poetry

often a lyric that lends itself to spontaneity, immediacy, quick burst of emotion, self-revelations

Result of laissez faire

rich grew richer poor suffered even more -small children of the poor were often used as beasts of burden -in coal pits, very small children were harnessed to carts for dragging coal, as if they had been small donkeys

what did these lyrics express

romantics' belief that imagination rather than mere reason was the nest response to the forces of change wordsworth: "spiritual love acts not nor can exist without imagination, which, in truth, is but another name for absolute power and clearest insight, amplitude of mind, and reason in her most exalted mood" The Prelude

what did wordsworth focus on

rural life not city life -in the country, "the passions of men are incorporated with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature" -there is a permanent and interactive bond between the human mind and nature -celecrates this bond in "Tintern Abbey"

events in france

september massacre -hundreds of french aristocrats and some members of the clergy had heads severed with new invention guillotine 1793-france and england declared war napolean bonaparte (officer in the army) became dictator and then in 1804 became emperor

what started the french revolution

storming of the prison called bastille on july 14 1789

how did william blake think of the poet

the bard, an inspired revealer and teacher

in the preface, wordsworth makes it clear that

the poet is special "endowed with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness...a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common among mankind"

what began romantic period

this

purpose of this imitation

to create new realities in the mind as a result - in poetry

spring of 1798

two young english poets sold some poems to raise money for a trip to germany -had already written poetry, but new book was to be anonymous -samuel taylor coleridge (younger one): "wordsworth's name is nothing...mine stinks" -"lyrical ballads, with a few other poems"

the three poets (of the 6 most identified with the romantic period) that were born before the period began and lived through most or all of it

william blake william wordsworth samuel taylor coleridfe

tintern abbey

wordsworth describes this link as "something far more deeply interfused" this "something" is a creative power that makes things happen romantics identified it as a creative power that makes things happen -- imagination, far superior to human reasoning

english view of french revolution

worst fears of the ruling class -the overthrow of an anointed king by a democratic mod -feared that the revolutionary fever would spread across the channel