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SOCIAL & POLITICAL CONTEXT
PERIOD OF GREAT CHANGE IN ENGLAND:
AGRICULTURAL - POWERFUL
LANDHOLDING ARISTOCRACY
GIVING WAY TO MODERN INDUSTRIAL
NATION OF LARGE-SCALE EMPLOYERS & A
GROWING, RESTLESS MIDDLE CLASS.
AMERICAN & FRENCH REVOLUTIONS -
IMPORTANT ELEMENTS OF THE
POLITICAL LANDSCAPE.
REVOLUTIONS - THREATS TO EXISTING
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
PERIOD OF CHANGE (cont.)
PERIOD OF CHANGE (cont.)
POLITICAL REPRESSION IN ENGLAND
NEEDED CHANGES – DUE TO
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION.
PERIOD OF CHANGE (cont.)
MILL TOWNS GREW
THE LANDSCAPE - SUBDIVIDED
FACTORIES SPEWED POLLUTION OVER
SLUMS
THE POPULATION - DIVIDED INTO RICH &
POOR.
LACK OF REFORM
NO REFORMS – philosophy of LAISSEZ-FAIRE (“LET ALONE”) prevailed.
Lack of reforms caused the Romantic poets to turn to a more private, spontaneous, lyric poetry that championed the cause of the “common man”
LACK OF REFORM (cont.)
CONSEQUENCES
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 UN-
EMPLOYMENT & POVERTY, WORKERS
COULD NOT VOTE
RESORT TO PROTESTS & RIOTS
INCUR FURTHER REPRESSION
THE POOR SUFFERED
THE LEISURE CLASS PROSPERED.
PLIGHT OF WOMEN
WOMEN OF ALL CLASSES
REGARDED AS INFERIOR TO MEN
UNDEREDUCATED
LIMITED VOCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
STRICT CODE OF SEXUAL BEHAVIOR
ALMOST NO LEGAL RIGHTS.
ROMANTICISM
Embraced imagination and naturalness
Turned away from 18th century emphasis on
reason and artifice
Fascination with youth and innocence
Question tradition and authority
ROMANTICISM (cont.)
ROMANTIC POETS –
REJECTED PUBLIC, FORMAL, AND WITTY
WORKS OF THE PREVIOUS CENTURY
EMBRACED PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
EMOTIONS
SIMPLE ,UNADORNED LANGUAGE
ROMANTIC POETS (cont.) LYRIC FORM TO EXPRESS, FEELINGS,
SELF-REVOLATION, & IMAGINATION DEMOCRATIC ATTITUDE TOWARD
AUDIENCE, “ A MAN SPEAKING TO MEN.” TURNED TO AN INNER DREAM WORLD TO
BLOCK OUT THE UGLY INDUSTRIAL AGE THEY LIVED IN
INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY SYMPATHIZED WITH REBELS
ROMANTIC POETS (cont.) NATURE – TRANSFORMATIVE NATURE – HUMAN MIND “MIRRORED”
THE OTHER’S CREATIVE PROPERTIES
POETIC THEORY & PRACTICE
WORDSWORTH TRIED TO ARTICULATE
THE SPIRIT OF THE NEW POETRY IN
THE PREFACE TO LYRICAL BALLADS
(1800, 1802).
CONCEPT OF POETRY
POETRY WAS SEEN AS THE “SPONTA-
NEOUS OVERFLOW OF POWERFUL
FEELINGS”
THE ESSENCE OF POETRY WAS THE MIND,
EMOTIONS, & IMAGINATION OF THE POET
(NOT THE OUTER WORLD).
POETRY & THE POET
FIRST-PERSON LYRIC POEM BECAME
THE MAJOR ROMANTIC LITERARY
FORM, WITH “I” OFTEN REFERRING
DIRECTLY TO THE POET.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SELF BE-
CAME 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
Rely on instinct, intuition, and feeling
NATURE
Accurate observation & description of wild
nature important because,
Serves as a stimulus to thinking
Contributes to the resolution of personal problems
Resolution of crises
NATURE (cont.)
LANDSCAPE
GIVEN HUMAN QUALITIES OR
SEEN AS A SYSTEM OF SYMBOLS
REVEALING THE NATURE OF GOD.
CLOSENESS TO 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
OFTEN SET IN DISTANT OR FARAWAY PLACES
THE STRANGE (cont.)
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, VISIONARY STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS HYPNOTISM DREAMS DRUG-INDUCED STATES, AND SO FORTH.
THE STRANGE (cont.) GOTHIC
Eerie and supernatural elements Stories set in gloomy, medieval castles Intention – make readers, blood run cold Expressed a sense of helplessness about:
Things beyond control Revolutions in Europe Industrialization’s economic changes
INDIVIDUALISM & STRIVING
HUMAN BEINGS WERE SEEN AS ESSEN-
TIALLY NOBLE & GOOD (THOUGH COR-
RUPTED BY SOCIETY)
POSSESSING GREAT POWER & POTENTIAL
THAT HAD FORMERLY BEEN ASCRIBED
ONLY TO GOD.
INDIVIDUALISM (cont.)
THERE WAS EMPHASIS ON 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
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.)
REFUSAL TO ACCEPT LIMITATIONS
FOUND EXPRESSION IN BOLD POETIC
EXPERIMENTATION.
INDIVIDUALISM (cont.)
MANY WRITERS ISOLATED THEMSELVES
FROM SOCIETY TO FOCUS ON THEIR
INDIVIDUAL VISION.
THEME OF EXILE WAS COMMON - THE
ROMANTIC NON-CONFORMIST OFTEN
SEEN AS A GREAT SINNER OR OUTLAW.
INDIVIDUALISM (cont) BYRONIC HERO
“Mad, bad, and dangerous to know.” – Lady Caroline Lamb, speaking of George Gordon, Lord Byron
“A man proud, moody, cynical, with defiance on his brow, and misery in his heart, a scorner of his kind, implacable in revenge, yet capable of deep and strong affection.”
Reckless, wounded manhood
ROMANTIC POETS Dominated by six poets:
William Blake Samuel Taylor Coleridge William Wordsworth Percy Bysshe Shelley John Keats George Gordon, Lord Byron
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