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The Romantic Period.

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The Romantic Period in British Literature was a time of:

•nature-inspired poetry

•political questioning

•individualism

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Properly dating the onset of Romantic Period in British Literature is not always easy. The “romantic” traits start to emerge shortly before the time of the French Revolution, but some scholars attribute the onset of the period to a poet named William Wordsworth who co- published a “new kind” of poetry with his friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Their work entitled “Lyrical Ballads” was published in 1798.

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Characteristic #1: Romantic literature questions authority and values individuals who question authority. Anything that infringes on personal liberty is suspect in this tradition.

A German literary movement called Sturm und Drang had already popularized the concept of a suffering main character or poetic ‘’voice’’- one who was a martyr, a rebel, an iconoclast going against the assumptions and expectations of a society. The Romantic movement in British literary history shares this ideal.

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‘’Hey, Johnny, What are you rebelling against’’?

‘’What’ve you got’’? - Marlon Brando

Movies such as Marlon Brando’s ‘’Wild One’’ have popularized the ideal of an irresistible bad boy, glamorous in his fatal passion, rivaling society with a hell-bent glare.

This bad boy stereotype first entered English culture in the poetry of Lord Byron. These ill-fated but beautifully emotional characters are called “Byronic Heroes.”

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Characteristic #2: Nature is portrayed as omnipresent and capable of altering human perception and perspective. The

settings of these poems, therefore, are picturesque and exotic.

The poets who chose the Romantic style at this time investigated many topics. They wrote of time, love, death, art, and religion among other topics. But one topic in particular was a favorite among the Romantics - nature. As long as there have been poets, there have been poems about nature, but these nature poems were somehow different from the ones that had come before. These poems were not quaint, predictable, over-simplified glorifications of Nature on a purely observational level. These poems were designed to communicate Nature’s transformative power.

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Characteristic #3: The ability to describe ordinary events as extraordinary .

The personal experiences documented in the Romantic literature of this time are epiphanies that alter the life of the speaker. But the catalysts for such events may have been ordinary, mundane, or less than remarkable.

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Characteristic #4: Enlightenment through emotion

Because the Romantic poetry valued individual experience, the rationalism previously admired was replaced by a trust in one’s emotions. The literature in England prior to this movement was witty, intellectual, and social. Romanticism rejects the social ‘us’ and embraces the ‘me’! (Yes, another ‘ME’ generation, like the 1980’s!) Intuitions, feelings, and emotions ruled. A person’s heart was a more valued guide than their head.

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Characteristic #5: The use of simple language

The Romantics searched for personal experiences and strove to communicate their power in meaningful ways. To achieve this, the Romantic writers employed simple and direct language. This was another way to reject the Neoclassical movement that hoped to emulate the ancient writers in lofty styles and language. Think of it this way… our most personal conversations, our most private, do not need elevated language to impress or ring true.

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Characteristic #6: Supernatural elements

Another characteristic of Romantic literature is the inclusion of supernatural elements. Perhaps, for the Romantics, Nature was so powerful that it could not be contained. Nature takes on a mysterious, sometimes even scary quality in literature of the Romantics.

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British Romantic poetry most frequently took the form of lyric poetry. This genre employed rhythm, repetition, and sometimes rhyme to give the poem a lyrical or musical effect. Sometimes the speaker was a narrator of sorts, or in other instances, the speaker is the voice of the poet.

Although poetry was the most expected Romantic genre, Romantic novels were also written. A popular novel by Mary Shelley - Frankenstein - is also representative of the period.