Optimus2g

Download file

The Romantic Period: 1798-1837

The Romantic Period (sandwiched between the French Revolution & the beginning of Queens Victoria’s reign) was characterized largely by a belief in the primacy of the imagination. A reliance and emphasis upon nature was the cornerstone of the writers and artists from this brief, but rich time period in English literature. No figure stood out as greatly from this time period than William Blake (1757-1827), who is considered as being the first of the Romantics. Spontaneity and human impulse were considered to be good by him, as long they belonged to the individual and weren’t anyone else’s---conformity to social norms was condemned by the Romantics. Reason only existed on the periphery of energy, which was the heart of his philosophy, and characterized this literary period. This is best exemplified in Blake’s “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell,” in which a synthesis between energy (representative of “Hell”) and reason is created, with sensual desire and impulses serving as the driving force in this noteworthy work, with reason (the “heavenly” metaphor) existing only as a secondary factor.

William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge must be mentioned as being “first generation” Romantics, along with Blake, with their 1798 collaborative work, “Lyrical Ballads” being a beacon and benchmark for this era. Wordsworth’s “Lines Composed a Few Miles from Tintern Abbey,” “Intimations on Mortality,” “The Prelude” & Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” are all examples of essential works contained in this volume, which many point to as being the actual start of the Romantic period itself. The best way to categorize the collaborative contributions Wordsworth & Coleridge is to remember that Wordsworth made the natural seem supernatural and that Coleridge portrayed the supernatural as being natural truths.

A movement such as this was driven by certain political and social milestones that were occurring as well, such as: (1) the French Revolution & (2) the rise of Industrialism. These factors served as the driving forces behind writers such as Thomas Paine’s “Rights of Man” (written in 1791 as a response to infamous pro-establishment politician Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France) the Mary Wollstonecraft’s “A Vindication of the Rights of Women,” in terms of relating this spirit of imagination and reaffirmation between nature and the soul, expressed via the newfound freedom and thinking of the masses over the gentry classes that gave rise to the French Revolution, just across the French Channel, in the first place.

The group of poets who came to be known as the second generation of Romantics included the following George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1822), Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), and John Keats (1795-1821). They all wrote sonnets, odes, and epics dealing with nature. Byron’s epic, Don Juan, and his autobiographical Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, both were exemplary of his melancholic state, along with his witty and irreverent style exemplifying his contempt for others from this time period, such as Coleridge and Wordsworth themselves. Shelley’s sonnets and odes, such as “Ode to the West Wind”, were characterized by their sensory imagery, emphasizing natural beauty. Keats’ poetry, unlike Byron’s, was not inspired by depressive states, rather it was focused on intensity—regardless of the emotional form that it came in, (love, pain, or otherwise). Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale,” “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” and “Ode on Melancholy” are exemplary of this style of writing. What must be noted is that all of these “second generation” Romantics all died tragically young, with the “first generation” Romantics—Coleridge and Wordsworth outliving them. What these figures all had in common was that they highlighted the imperfections of man, via an emphasis upon human emotion and natural themes. They all sought to bring their ideas to the literary forefront, because these ideas—to them—were hidden in the background previous to the 1800s, for far, too long without being completely explored.

Works Cited:

Burke, Edmund. “Reflections on the Revolution in France.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 8th ed., Vol. 2. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt & M.H. Abrams. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2006. pp. 152-158.

Lombardi, Esther. “Romantic Period: Where Did it All Begin?” http://classiclit.about.com/od/britishromantics/a/aa_britromantic.htm (Retrieved 24 February, 2007).

Philp, Mark. “Revolution.” The Romantic Age: British Culture 1776-1832, Ed. Iain McCalman (Oxford UP, 1999), pp.17-26.

Wollstonecraft, Mary. “A Letter to the Right Honorable Edmund Burke.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 8th ed., Vol. 2. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt & M.H. Abrams. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2006. pp. 158-163.