THE ROMANTIC AGE
The most important event that affected the political scene and the intellectuals was the French Revolution
that broke out in 1789 and ended thanks to the Napoleon’s ascent.
•The reactions in Britain to this fact were various. Napoleon had defeated the European countries and
forced them to ally with him. But Britain, relying its stronger navy and decided to fight France. In 1814
Napoleon was definitely defeat at Waterloo. The period that covered the Napoleonic wars was called “the
regency”, since the Prince Regent later to become GEORGE IV, acted as monarch during the illness of
George
George IV-> was called the “first gentleman” for his extravagant behaviour. His taste for exotic was reflected
in public buildings. England was changing from a primarily agricultural society into a modern industrial
nation. Therefore the first three decades of 1800 were a period of social and political conflicts (repression).
-Born Workhouses; Poor people-> bad conditions of life. Rich people-> land owners, merchants,
manufacturers.
The egoistical sublime
Romanticism can be seen as a creative period, in the society there was a new view of the world, due to
economical, political and social changes. The pre-romantic poets had already shown an interest in emotions
and imagination. The romantics stressed the special qualities of each individual minds; they exalted atypical,
outcast, rebel. New interests in space and time: exotic and Medieval Ages.
•English romanticism saw a poetry as best suites to expressing emotional experience and individual
feelings. Romantic poets searches for a new, individual style.
Two generation of English poets
Lake poets:
1. Wordsworth (he write about the beauty of nature & ordinary things) 2. Coleridge (he write about
supernatural and mystery) Supported the French Revolution for the ideals of freedom and equality.
2. Byron, Keats, Shelley.
All died very young and away from home (Mediterranean countries. In their poetry there is a clash between
ideal and real: poetry was no longer regarded as an imitation of life but coincided with the desire to
challenge the cosmos, nature, political and social order.)
WILLIAM BLAKE
He was an English writer born in the second half of the 18th century. In the last part of the 18th century,
poets began to express their dissatisfaction with the classical ideas and to reject the idea that reason is the
leading faculty of the intellect. Pre-romantic poetry is characterised by the use of classical forms to express
romantic themes: the exaltation of nature, the rediscovery of the Middle Ages, the exaltation of exotic, the
sublime. Blake was an isolated figure because his work does not fall into any of the literary categories of
tradition. He didn’t belong to pre romanticism or to romanticism. He represents an isolated and eclectic
character in British literature, His most important collection was Songs of Innocence and Experience. About
this collection, the human soul his made up of opposites: innocence experience; pastoral word of childhood
