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.