HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
The Romantic
Age
(1798-1830)
Muhammad Talha Khan
Department of English
Student at University Of Lahore,
Sargodha Campus.

Romantic has come to mean
basically two things:
1.The loving or potentially
loving relationships b/w men
and women.
2.A way of looking at the
world that looks beyond, or
ignores, the world as it is
and perceives a visionary
world.

Romanticism
(the Romantic
Movement),
a literary movement, and
profound shift in sensibility,
which took place in Britain and
throughout Europe from 1770-1848.

Intellectually it marked a
violent reaction to the
Enlightenment.
Politically it was inspired by
the revolutions in America and
France and popular wars of
independence in Poland, Spain,
Greece, and elsewhere.

Emotionally it
expressed an
extreme assertion
of the self and the
value of individual
experience (the 'egotistical
sublime'), together with the sense
of the infinite and transcendental.

often
Socially it championed
progressive causes,
though when these
were frustrated it
produced a bitter,
gloomy, and
despairing outlook.

The Romantic Age
began in 1798when
William Wordsworth
and Samuel Taylor
published
Lyrical Ballads,
and ended in 1832
when Walter Scott
died.

Definition:-
“literature depicting emotional matter in an
imaginative form…….”
“liberalism in literature…….“
Imagination, emotion and freedom are certainly
the focal points of romanticism.
Romanticism stresses on self-expression and
individual uniqueness.

Romanticism saw a shift from
CLASSICAL AGE
faith in reason
interest in
urban society
public,
impersonal
poetry
concern with the
scientific and
mundane
ROMANTIC AGE
faith in the senses,
feelings &
imagination
interest in the
rural and natural
subjective poetry
interest in the
mysterious and
infinite.

Romanticism includes……
Subjectivity and
an emphasis on
individualism
Spontaneity
Freedom from
rules
Devotion is
superior to beauty
Solitary life
Imagination is
superior to reason
Love of and worshipof
nature
Fascination with the
past, especially the
myths and
mysticism of the
middle ages.

Romanticism is characterized by the 5 “I”s
Imagination
Idealism
Intuition
Inspiration
Individuality

CHARACTERISTICSOF THE
ROMANTIC ERA
1.Common Man and Childhood over Urban
Sophistication
Romantics believed in the natural goodness of
humans, which is hindered by the urban life of
civilization. They believed that the savage is noble,
childhood is good and the emotions inspired by
both beliefs causes the heart to soar.
2.Emotions over Reason
Romantics believed that knowledge is gained
through intuition rather than deduction. Thisis best
summed up by Wordsworth who stated that “all
good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of
powerful feelings.”

3. Nature over Artificial
Romantics stressed the awe of nature in art and
language and the experience of sublimity through
a connection with nature. Romantics rejected the
ideas of the industrial revolution .
4. The Individual over Society
Romantics often elevated the achievements of the
misunderstood, heroic individual outcast.
5. Imagination over Logic
Romantics legitimized the individual imagination
as a critical authority.

COMMON FEATURESOF
ROMANTIC POETRY
The romantics cultivated imaginative freedom;
Used a variety of poeticforms;
Tended to express the feelings of man in
solitude as opposed to those of man in society;
All the poets, except Blake, described the
natural environment;
They tended to use language with more
freedom and informality than the 18thcentury
poets;

They tended to use language with more
freedom and informality than the 18th
century poets;
They were profoundly affected by thegreat
historical fact of the French Revolution;
The romantic poets were deeply interested
both in life and art;
The most interesting poems were about
writing poetry;

ROMANTI
C
THEMES :
LITERARY
FORMS
LYRIC,
BALLAD,
SONNET,
NATURE
LOVE
HISTORY
HISTORICAL
NOVEL

ROMANTIC ATTITUDES:
SENSIBILITY
MELANCHOLY
INDIVIDUALISM
REBELLIOUSNESS

THEFIRSTGENERATION
OF ROMANTIC POETS:
W. BLAKE (1757 – 1827)
W.WORDSWORTH (1770
- 1850)
S.T. COLERIDGE (1772 -
1834)

WILLIAM BLAKE
Born : 28 November 1757
London, England
Died : 12 August 1827
(aged 69)
London, England
Occupation: Poet, Painter,
Printmaker
Genres: Visionary Poetry
Literary movement:
Romanticism
Notable work: Songs of
Innocence and of Experience,
The Marriage of Heaven and
Hell, The Four Zoas,
Jerusalem, Milton

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
William Wordsworth
(7 April 1770 – 23 April 1850)
was a major English Romantic poet
who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
helped to launch the Romantic Age
in English literature with the 1798
joint publication Lyrical Ballads.
Wordsworth's magnum opus is
generally considered to be The
Prelude, a semiautobiographical
poem of his early years.
Wordsworth was England's Poet Laureate from 1843 until his
death in 1850.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
Born: 21 October
1772 Ottery St. Mary,
Devon, England
Died : 25 July 1834
(aged 61)
Highgate, England
Occupation: Poet,
critic, philosopher
Literary movement :
Romanticism

THESECOND GENERATION OF
ROMANTIC POETS:
BYRON (1757 – 1827)
KEATS (1770 - 1850)
PERCY BYSSHE
SHELLEY (1792 - 1822)

PERCYBYSSHESHELLEY
,
Born : 4 August1792
Field Place, Horsham
Sussex, England
Died : 8 July
1822 (aged
29)Lerici,
Kingdom of Sardinia(now Italy)
Occupation : Poet, dramatist, essayist,
novelist

JOHN KEATS
Born 31 October 1795
Moorgate, London,
England
Died 23 February 1821
(aged 25)
Rome, Papal States
Occupation Poet
Alma mater King's College,
London
Literary
movement
Romanticism

LORD BYRON
on
an
Born : George Gordon Byr
22 January 1788
London
Died : 19 April 1824
(aged 36)Missolonghi,
Ottoman Empire (Greece)
Occupation : Poet,politici
Nationality : English
Literary movement :

LITERARY CRITICISM
Literary critics
became the arbiters
of taste
Debate over the
artistic value as well
as the utilitarian value
of critical literature
1802: Edinburgh
Review
1809: Quarterly
Review
William Hazlitt
Charles Lamb
Thomas DeQuincy
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

HISTORICA
L NOVELS
Novels that reconstruct a
past age, often when two
cultures are in conflict
Fictional characters
interact with with
historical figures in actual
events
Sir Walter Scott (1771-
1832) is considered the
father of the historical
novel: The Waverly
Novels (1814-1819) and
Ivanhoe (1819)

JANE AUSTEN AND
THENOVEL OF MANNERS
Novels dominated by the
customs, manners,
conventional behavior and
habits of a particular social
class
Often concerned with
courtship and marriage
Realistic and sometimes
satiric
Focus on domestic society
rather than the larger world

TosaythewordRomanticismistosay
modernart-thatis,intimacy,
spirituality,color,aspirationtowards
theinfinite,expressedbyeverymeans
availabletothearts.

Poetry is the
spontaneous overflow
of powerful feelings:
it takes its origin
from emotion
recollected in
tranquility.”-
“Beauty is truth,
truth beauty,’ – that
is all ye know on
earth, and all ye need
to know. “- Keats

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