The Romantic

Period

The Romantic Period

Time

1798 The publication of Wordsworth and

Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads

1832 Sir Walter Scott’s death and the

passage of the first Reform Bill

Definition

• A revival of ancient Greek and Roman classical art

• Emphasis on the special qualities of each individual

• A change from outer world of social civilization to the inner world of the

human spirit

I. Historical, social and cultural background

1. Historically

Influences of French Revolution

Rousseau’s new ideas about Nature, Society and Education in Du Contract Social and Emile

     2.  Economically

Influences of the Industrial Revolution

• Agricultural society replaced by a modern industrial one

• The capital class came to control

• Sharp conflicts between capital and labor

II. Literary history of the period

 1.  Literary trends

Views of Romantics in their creation of literary works

• Negative attitude toward the existing social and political conditions

• Individual as the very center of the life and all experience

II. Literary history of the period

2. Artistic features

(1) Characteristics in the literary works

• Passive or escapist ramanticists who focus their attention on matters

such as love, death.

e.g. Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southy

• Active romanticist who try to strengthen man’s will to live and raise

him against life around him against any yoke or restraints.

e.g. Shelly, Byron

• Great attention to the spiritual and emotional life of man

(2) Literary forms

Poetry

An age of poetry; Free from all; Common everyday life as subjects;

Bold experiments in poetic language, versification and design;

A variety of forms on original principles of organization and style

Prose

Newspapers, magazines and periodicals started to flourish

Novels

Novels of middle-upper class’s life; Historical novels; The Gothic novel

II. Literary history of the period

3. Major figures of this period

William Blake 1757-1827 Songs of Innocence William Wordsworth 1770-1850 Lyrical Ballads, The Prelude, I wander Lonely as a Cloud  S.T. Coleridge   1772-1834Lyrical Ballads, Kubla Khan  George Gordon Byron 1788-1824 Don Juan, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage

Percy Bysshe Shelly   1792-1822Queen Mab, Prometheus Unbound, Ode to the West Wind  

III. Representatives of this period

William Wordsworth 1. Biography 1770–William Wordsworth was born at Cockermouth, Cambarland, in the

family of an attorney. He received education at St. John's College, Cambridge. He developed a keen love of nature as a youth. Another important inf

luence on his life was the French Revolution. 2. Literary works

Lyrical Ballads The Prelude

William Wordsworth

3.   Major theme Common life is Wordsworth's only subject of literary interest. The joys &

sorrows of the common people are his themes. His sympathy always goes to the suffering poor. His short poems can be c

lassified into two groups: poems about nature and poems about human lif

e.

William Wordsworth 4.   Analysis of his masterpiece (1) Brief introduction of the poem I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (1) Wordsworth is regarded as a "worshipper of nature." He can penetrate to t

he heart of things & give the reader the very life of nature. (2) Theme The poem consists of four 6-lined stanzas of iambic tetrameter with a rhy

me scheme of ababcc in each stanza. (3)  Artistic features William Wordsworth is the leading figure of the English romantic poetry,

the focal poetic voice of the period. His is a voice of searchingly comprehensive humanity & one that inspires his audience to see the world freshly, sympathetically & naturally.

III. Representatives of this period Percy Bysshe Shelley

1.  Biography 1792 – He was born into a wealthy family at Sussex. Though gentle by na

ture, his rebellious qualities were cultivated in his early years. 1813 – He published his Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem 2.  Literary works

Lyrics: "To a Skylark" & "Ode to the West Wind" Poetic drama: Prometheus Unbound (1820)

Percy Bysshe Shelley 3. Major theme Shelley grew up with violent revolutionary ideas under the influence of th

e free thinkers like Hume & Godwin, so he held a life-long aversion to cr

uelty He predicted that only trough gradual & suitable reforms of the existing i

nstitutions could benevolence be universally established & none of the evils would survive in this "genuine society", where people could live together happily, freely & peacefully.

Percy Bysshe Shelley 4. Analysis of his masterpiece (1) Brief introduction of the poem A Song: Men of England (1)

This poem was written in 1819, the year of the Peterloo Massacre. It is un

questionably one of Shelley's greatest political lyrics. (2) Theme The song contains eight quatrains; generally each line contains 4 accented

syllables. The rhyme scheme for each stanza is uniformly aabb. (3) Artistic features His style abounds in personification & metaphor & other figures of speec

h which describe vividly what we see & feel, or express what passionately moves us.