ROMANTIC AGE

1776 - 1837

The Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, by Caspar David Friedrich, 1818

Prof. CAFIERO Marcello

The ROMANTIC AGE

THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

A period marked by important events

The years of revolutions French Revolution

1760

1760 - 1820

Industrial Revolution

1776 American Declaration of Independence “No taxation without representation”

1789

Congress of Vienna 1792 - 1815

1814

Napoleonic Wars

1798

Britain abolishes slavery

WILLIAM IV’s Reign

1820 - 1830

1830 - 1837

GEORGE IV’s Reign

1832 First Reform Bill

1833

1834

Poor Law Amendment Act

Wordsworth and Coleridge published the Lyrical Ballads

“revolution” because society was radically transformed

improvement in transportation and communication

the birth of working-class movements

the use of material like iron and steel

new sources of power like coal and the steam engine

the factory system, improvements in agriculture

the rise of international trade and the growth of cities

shift of population from rural areas to towns Prof. CAFIERO Marcello

GEORGE III’s Reign

The Literary Context

Thomas GRAY (1716-1771) William BLAKE (1757-1827)

Romantic Poets

Romantic Poets

First Generation

Second Generation

William WORDSWORTH (1770-1850) Samuel Taylor COLERIDGE (1772-1834)

Lord BYRON (1788-1724) Percy Bysshe SHELLY (1792-1822) John KEATS (1795-1821)

POETRY is the main literary form of this period

Prof. CAFIERO Marcello

Pre-Romantic Poets

Early Romantic Poetry TRENDS IN ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY new ideas and feelings which paved the way to the Romantic generations of poets

Pastoral poetry Nature poetry James Thomson (1700-1748)

Early romantic poets reacted to the social changes taking place in the country with a re-evaluation of rural origins and a sense of melancholy and sadness.

Ossianic poetry James Macpherson (1736-1796)

Graveyard poetry Edward Young (1683-1765)

Prof. CAFIERO Marcello

William Cowper (1731-1800)

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a prophet

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a teacher

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wanted to be understood by everybody

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use of personification with nature, ascribing human traits to daffodils, fields, streams, and lakes Prof. CAFIERO Marcello

THE ROLE OF THE POET

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a great interest in nature

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nature as a source of inspiration

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nature offered the poets solitude

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a strong interest in childhood

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‘childhood’ was admired and cultivated because the child was considered pure and unspoilt by civilization

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reason and rationality is replaced by sensibility and imagination

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creativity and imagination belonged to the spiritual

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the countryside is preferred to the industrial town, because the poet is in relationship with nature

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the revival of the past, opposed to the present reality

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the “cult of exotic”, which is far away both in space and in time

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a change of perspective from attention to the outer world of social civilization to the inner world of the human spirit

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senses: sight, sound, scent, taste and feeling are all taken in to give an entire understanding of an experience

Prof. CAFIERO Marcello

ROMANTIC THEMES

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Romantic depicts emotional matter in an imaginative form.

Prof. CAFIERO Marcello

- Friedrich SCHLEGEL

Prof. CAFIERO Marcello

Thank

you.