Transcript The Romantic Period

of British Literature
1785-1832


___________ Revolution
___________ Revolution
both result in _________ for England
English government developed “counter__________
alarm” mindset and policies

Industrial ___________
◦ development of “labor class” as opposed to an
“______________ class”
◦ populations shifts to labor-centered ________, often
over-crowded and very _____________
◦ “polarized” population of “two classes…________
and _________”
◦ Little or no governmental regulation of industrial or
capitalistic pursuits
◦ Landed classes, industrialist & merchants
___________


aggressive expansions of the British
__________
“Consumerism” increased due to trade and
innovations in production of goods


few legal rights gained by ___________ in this
era, though the call for such became louder
and more common
more publications by ___________ for the first
time in British history




“_________ of the age” = a “pervasive
intellectual and imaginative climate”
“evidence of _____________ boldness that
marks a literary renaissance”
some writers associated with “Protestant
Dissent” – where “accounts of the Apocalypse
and the coming of the Kingdom of God had
long been central”
others associated more with the “revolution
of _______________”




Precursors seen by last two decades of
1700s, especially as poetry “penetrated
everyday life”
officially marked by first edition of
___________ ____________ in 1798,
anonymously, but by William ___________ and
Samuel Taylor ______________, commonly
called the “first generation Romantics”
marked by its “manifesto for a new poetics”
of British poetry
“a turning point in literary history”


note all italicized headers of poetry section
Concept of Poet & the Poem (starting on p. 13)
◦ “source of the poem was not outer nature but in the
psychology of the individual poet”... Essential
material for the poem found in the inner feelings of
the poet


Wordsworth: poetry is the “spontaneous
overflow of powerful __________”
Coleridge: good poetry is “______-originating”
and “_______-organizing”, like the “growth of
a plant”



Common focus on nature, but as a “stimulus
to the most characteristic human activity, that
of ______________”
critical development of lyric poetry written in
________ -person, commonly called the
“autobiographical ‘I’”
“introspective tendency” of the poet “could
also lead to ______________ and madness”

Spontanaity and the Impulse of Feeling
(starting on page 14)

“rules” – what “rules”?! ... impulse = a driving
force of poetry at this time (remember the rebuttal of
the “Age of Reason” concepts)


added to Wordsworth’s idea of good poetry
being “spontaneous overflow of feeling” is his
concept of poetry being that same feeling or
“emotion” now “recollected in __________”
Wollstonecraft: “silken wings of ________ are
shriveled by rules”




Spontanaity and the Impulse of Feeling
Keats: “if poetry comes not as naturally as
________ from ________ it had better not come
at all”
Shelley: proposed that it is “an error to assert
that the finest passages of poetry are
produced by ________ and study”
Coleridge: “Deep thinking is attainable only
by a man of deep ___________”





The Glorification of the Ordinary (starting on p. 16)
Subject matter expands to include “all things” as
“equally fit subjects”
used the “disgraced, _________ and delinquent” as
frequent subjects of serious poems
Wordsworth: “choose incidents and situations from
___________ life” as well as “language really spoken”
Nature and rustic life was a common focus, often in
reaction to industrialized cities and the effects of
urbanization



The Glorification of the Ordinary (starting on p. 16)
Often, but not always, “elevated humble life and
__________ style”
attempts by some to “refresh” readers’ “sense of
wonder in the everyday, the trivial and the lowly” –
often aligned with a “child-like sense of wonder”





The Supernatural, the Romance and the
Psychological Extremes (starting on p. 17)
“__________point” to the focus on “familiar”
Some poetry “founded on frank violation of
natural laws and the ordinary course of events”
linked to the focus upon the importance of
imagination, a.k.a. “_______”, as well as to
chemically-induced states, among other issues
“bewitchings, hauntings, possessions …
demonology, folklore…Gothic” (remember the
reaction to the earlier “Age of Reason”)




The Supernatural, the Romance and the
Psychological Extremes (starting on p. 17)
linked to the focus upon the importance of
imagination, a.k.a. “_______”, as well as to
chemically-induced states, among other issues,
i.e. dreams, nightmares, altered consciousness
Coleridge = the forerunner of this concept
amongst Romantics
similar to _________ concepts – with that era
becoming a common setting at this point



Individualism and Alienation (starting on p. 19)
celebrations of creativity and artistic selfsufficiency
“poets and philosophers alike put an
extraordinarily high estimate on human
potentialities and powers”



“fragment poems” developed – as “most poetic
poetry” could be “defined as much by what was
_______ as by what was present”, so a poem
could be a “trace of an original concept that
was too grand to ever be fully realized”
poems often seen as “products of solitude” and
nature as a place where an individual could “find
___________ from social laws”
Subjects were often a “single figure, stark and
solitary … disillusioned visionaries … whose
thwarted ambitions and torments connected
them”

“Nature Poetry” (not discussed in this preface in
isolation)


As noted, nature is often the solace and
inspiration of Romantic poets
love of nature often expressed in verse of
many, but not all, Romantics

“Even Romantics who wished to associate
literature with isolated poets holding mute
converse with their souls had to acknowledge
that in real life the writer did not dwell in
solitude but confronted, and was accountable
to, a crowd. For many commentators the
most revolutionary aspect of the age was the
spread of _________ and the dramatic
expansion of the potential audience for
literature.”

printed materials became more plentiful and
cheaper (think about the development of production
techniques and the subsequent surge in consumerism aligned
with the Industrial Revolution)

British government reacted to publication
and literacy advances with various attempts
to control mass information dissemination
(think about the earlier note on the reactions to various
political and social revolutions in neighboring countries and
in colonies)



Prose and drama also experienced
developments in the Romantic period, but not
to the same extreme of poetry.
Novels were initially popular, yet often not
critically acclaimed. The exceptions are
novels by Jane Austen.
Poetry will be our primary focus in this unit,
along with some essays and autobiographies.




those publishing prior to 1798
many __________ among in this timeframe
generally considered to end after
William Blake
precursors here of what would soon become
a full-blown rebuttal of the “Age of ________”
which dominated the earlier 18th century
writers and thinkers, particularly Samuel
Johnson





considered a Pre-Romantic
Family was part of “Dissenters”
or “Nonconformist” communities,
based upon their religious denominations
and other social views
Received an education not afforded most women of
her era and was also an educator
“To a Little Invisible Being”
“Washing Day” audio at http://ecaudio.umwblogs.org/barbauldwashing-day-read-by-keetje-kuipers/



Charlotte Smith
Mary Robinson
precursors for Romanticism in each = _______
◦ Both options for lit analysis research project




Robert Burns
from Scotland
“Heaven-taught ploughman”
audio for “To a Mouse” at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvvozS4jSyw

Audio for “Auld Lang Syne” at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1edtLulXImo