William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

Early Postcard of Tintern Abbey

Tintern Abbey

Modern Photograph J.M.W. Turner

Interior of Tintern Abbey, 1794

John Constable, English Painter of

The Romantic Age

See Norton p 12

• Glorification of Nature

& of the Ordinary.

• Suggesting significance

in the subject matter of

everyday life—elevating

the importance of those.

• Romantic poetry such as

Wordsworth‟s often

promoted sympathy not

only for humble country

folk but “for the

disgraced, outcast, and

delinquent—„convicts,

female vagrants, gypsies,

…idiot boys, and mad

mothers‟” (NA 16).

• In light of the French

Revolution, the attention

to the commoner can be

seen as a political,

democratizing move.