Topic: The Romantic Period (1798-1832)

Welcome

to this Class in the

Department of English

Uttara University

Conducted By:

Monir HossenLecturer

Department of English

Uttara University

Email: monir.eng.cou@gmail.com

Introduction

The Romantic period begun with the publication of Lyrical Ballads,

a joint work of poetry by William Wordsworth and S.T Coleridge just

after the ten years of French Revolution in 1798. This era has a

great contribution to English literature. Romanticism was highly

influenced in the writings of this period. It is generally a reaction to

the earlier neo-classical literature. During the late 18th century and

in the beginning of 19th century many poets and artists developed

the literature of this period. Such as: William Wordsworth, S.T

Coleridge, William Blake, Loard Byron, P.B Shelley, John Keats and

so on.

Features of the romantic literature

Love for nature

Simplicity

Humanism

Love for beauty

Sensuousness

Spontaneity

Subjectivity

Classicism

Glorification of nature

Revolutionary Zeal

Supernaturalism

Use of common language

Use of symbols, imageries

Common theme

Pantheism

High Imagination

Mysticism

Lyricism

Individualism

William WordsworthIn 1798, two young English poets William

Wordsworth (1770-1850) and Samuel Taylor

Coleridge (1772-1834) published a book of

poems called Lyrical Ballads.

In 1800 an expanded edition was published,

with a preface-a kind of poetic manifesto-

by Wordsworth. This is generally regarded

as the official beginning of Romanticism in

England.

Definition of Poetry

“Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of

powerful feelings: it takes its origin from

emotion recollected in tranquility.”

Preface to Lyrical Ballads

Language of Poetry

"There neither is, nor can be, any essential

difference between the language of prose and

metrical composition." Preface to Lyrical Ballads

About poetry

“Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge;

it is the impassioned expression which is in the

countenance of all science.”

Preface to Lyrical Ballads

Major works

Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems (1798)

"Simon Lee"

"We are Seven"

"Lines Written in Early Spring"

"Expostulation and Reply"

"The Tables Turned"

"The Thorn"

"Lines Composed A Few Miles above Tintern Abbey"

Continued

Lyrical Ballads, with Other Poems (1800)

Preface to the Lyrical Ballads

Guide to the Lakes (1810)

" To the Cuckoo "

The Excursion (1814)

Laodamia (1815, 1845)

The White Doe of Rylstone (1815)

Peter Bell (1819)

The Prelude(1850)

Poems, in Two Volumes (1807)

"Resolution and Independence"

"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" Also known as "Daffodils"

"My Heart Leaps Up"

"Ode:

Intimations of Immortality"

"Ode to Duty"

"The Solitary Reaper"

"Elegiac Stanzas"

"Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802"

"London, 1802"

"The World Is Too Much with Us"

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (21 October 1772 – 25 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He wrote the poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, as well as the major prose work Biographia Literaria. His critical work, especially on William Shakespeare, was highly influential, and he helped introduce German idealist philosophy to English-speaking culture. Coleridge coined many familiar words and phrases, including suspension of disbelief. He had a major influence on Ralph Waldo Emerson and on American transcendentalism.

Coleridge’s poetry often deals with the mysterious, the supernatural and the extraordinary. While Wordsworth looked for the spiritual in everyday subjects, Coleridge wanted to give the supernatural a colouring of everyday reality.

Samuel T. Coleridge

Continued Coleridge is probably best known for his long poems, The Rime of the Ancient

Mariner and Christabel. Even those who have never read the Rime have come

under its influence: its words have given the English language the metaphor of an

albatross around one's neck, the quotation of "water, water everywhere, nor any

drop to drink" (almost always rendered as "but not a drop to drink"), and the

phrase "a sadder and a wiser man" (again, usually rendered as "a sadder but wiser

man"). The phrase "All creatures great and small" may have been inspired by The

Rime: "He prayeth best, who loveth best;/ All things both great and small;/ For

the dear God who loveth us;/ He made and loveth all." Christabel is known for its

musical rhythm, language, and its Gothic tale.

Kubla Khan, or, A Vision in a Dream, A Fragment, although shorter, is also widely

known. Both Kubla Khan and Christabel have an additional "Romantic" aura

because they were never finished. Stopford Brooke characterised both poems as

having no rival due to their "exquisite metrical movement" and "imaginative

phrasing."

William Blake

William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an

English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised

during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in

the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age.

What he called his prophetic works were said by 20th-century

critic Northrop Frye to form "what is in proportion to its merits

the least read body of poetry in the English language".[2] His

visual artistry led 21st-century critic Jonathan Jones to proclaim

him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced".

In 2002, Blake was placed at number 38 in the BBC's poll of the

100 Greatest Britons. Although he lived in London his entire life

(except for three years spent in Felpham), he produced a diverse

and symbolically rich œuvre, which embraced the imagination as

"the body of God" or "human existence itself".

Thank you