The Romantic Period

1780-1830

Sources of Inspiration

• Examination of inner feelings, emotions, imagination

• The literature of the Middle Ages

Attitudes and Interests• Idealistic

• Interested in the mysterious and supernatural

• Concerned with the particular

• Sought to develop new forms of expression

• Romanticized the past

• Tended toward excess and spontaneity

• Appreciated folk traditions

Social Concerns

• Desired radical change

• Favored democracy

• Concerned with the common people

• Concerned with the individual

• Felt that nature should be untamed

Two Generations of Poets

• 1st Generation included Robert Burns, William Blake, William Wordsworth, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

• 2nd Generation included George Gordon, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and John Keats.

Leaders of the Time

• Robert Burns and William Blake were the forerunners of the romantic literature in their subject matter, themes, and style.

• Burns published his Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (1896).

• Blake produced his companion books, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.

The Official Beginning

• The poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge teamed up to publish Lyrical Ballads (1798).

• This publication marks the official beginning of the Romantic Period in English literature.

Romantic Prose Writers

• Essayists included Charles Lamb, William Hazlitt, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Thomas De Quincey.

• Novelists included Mary Shelley, Jane Austin, and Sir Walter Scott