The Romantic Period

1. The Romantic Period 1798—1832

2. The American Revolution (1776-1783) was an economic and psychological blow to England. • The Romantic Period began with the French Revolution of 1789 and ended with Parliamentary reforms of 1832 that laid the political foundation for modern Britain.

3. The French Revolution gave hope to British progressives that democratic change would occur. • However, Napoleon’s rise to power led to violent suppression of freedom that rivaled the monarchs who preceded him. • This led to more rigid conservatism in England.

4. The Industrial Revolution produced machines that increased city populations, as workers were needed in the factories. • The laissez-faire philosophy led to atrocious working conditions that exploited child labor.

5. Romantic poets rebelled against the suppression of the time period. • The main Romantic poets were William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Shelley, John Keats, and Lord Byron.

6. Romantic poetry includes an idealistic, child-like wonder that suggests an ability to change. • It abandons formal verse for spontaneous, lyrical language. • The Romantics value imagination over reason.

7. The Gothic novel often sets stories in medieval castles and includes dark references to the supernatural.

8. Romantic Views of Poetry • Wordsworth says that good poetry is “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.” • “I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.” (William Blake) • Keats writes that a poet is a “physician” to all humanity and “pours out a balm upon the world.”

9. The Romantics identify imagination as a faculty superior to human reasoning. • It is a motive that drives the mind to discover things that it cannot learn by rational or logical thinking.

10. Discuss • Which has made a greater impact in the world: imagination or reason? Give examples.