English Romanticism Introduction Romantic poetry  William Wordsworth  S.T. Coleridge  G.G. Byron  P.B. Shelley  John Keats Introduction English Romanticism begins in 1798 with the publication of Wordsworth and Coleridge’s The Lyrical Ballads and ends in 1832 with Walter Scott’s death. William Blake and Robert Burns also belong to this literary genre, though they live prior to the Romantic period. English Romanticism is a revolt of the English imagination against the neoclassical reason. The French Revolution of 1789-1794 and the English Industrial Revolution exert great influence on English Romanticism. The romanticists express a negative attitude towards the existing social or political conditions. They place the individual at the center of art, as can be seen from Lord Byron’s Byronic Hero. The key words of English Romanticism are nature and imagination. English Romantic tend to be nationalistic, defending the greatest English writers. They argue that poetry should be free from all rules. Overview of Romantic literature The romantic period is an age of poetry. Wordsworth and Coleridge are the most representative writers. They explore new theories and innovate new techniques in versification. They believe that poetry could purify individual souls and society. For further study of their literary theory, please refer to Wordsworth’s Preface to The Lyrical Ballads & Coleridge’s Biographia Literaria. Lake poets Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey were known as Lake Poets because they lived and knew one another in the last few years of the 18 th century in the district of the great lakes in Northwestern England. The former two published The Lyrical Ballads together in 1798, while all three of them had radical inclinations in their youth but later turned conservative and received pensions and poet laureateships from the aristocracy. Other greatest Romantic poets are: John Keats, P.B. Shelley and G. G. Byron. Karl Marx likes Byron and Shelley very much. MU Dan （ 穆 旦 / 查 良 查 ） ， a renowned Chinese poet and translator , did splendid work to popularize Byron and Shelley in China. Years ago, Wordsworth and Coleridge were labeled “negative romantic poets” while Byron and Shelley were hailed as “positive (revolutionary) Romantic poets”. Wordsworth and Coleridge’s literary achievements were underestimated for a long time. Feminist works Mary Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792. Gothic novel is a type of romantic fiction that predominates in the late 18 th century and continues to show its influence in early 19 th century. Its principal elements are violence, horror, and the supernatural. Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley and The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) by Ann Radcliffe are masterpieces of English gothic novel. English fiction gropes its way amidst the overwhelming Romantic poetry. It revives its popularity in the hands of Jane Austen & Walt Scott. Walt Scott is noted for his historical novel based on Scottish history and legends. He exerted great influence on European literature of his time. Jane Austen is the first and foremost English women novelist. Following the neoclassical tradition, she is unsurpassed in the description of uneventful everyday life. Essayists in English Romanticism Essayists Representative works William Hazlitt Familiar essays Charles Lamb Essays of Elia; Tales from Shakespeare Coleridge Biographia Literaria William Wordsworth Wordsworth is the most representative poet of English Romanticism. He was born into a lawyer’s family in 1770 at Cockmouth, Cumberland. His parents died when he was very young. [...]... to English literature is his poems and his Preface to The Lyrical Ballads Though The Lyrical Ballads is known as the collaborated work of Wordsworth and Coleridge, all the poems but one (The Rime of The Ancient Mariner) are written by Wordsworth Most of his most quoted poem are taken from this collection Preface to Lyrical Ballads Wordsworth’s Preface (1800) to Lyrical Ballads is the manifesto of English. .. causes of dislike or disgust) because such men hourly communicate with the best objects from which the best part of language is originally derived Brief Comments Wordsworth is the representative poet of English romanticism Wordsworth’s poetry is distinguished by the simplicity and purity of his language Wordsworth’s theory on versification has exerted profound influence on later poets (mimesis imaginative... Bible, Robinson Crusoe and Arabian Nights He was a mentally precocious boy, full of fantasy and dreams in his mind During his Cambridge years, he made friends with Charles Lamb, the great essayist of English Romanticism But the campus life bored him He ran away from the university and enlisted in the army but discharged after a few months and he returned to Cambridge He joined Robert Southey in a . period. English Romanticism is a revolt of the English imagination against the neoclassical reason. The French Revolution of 1789-1794 and the English. Hero. The key words of English Romanticism are nature and imagination. English Romantic tend to be nationalistic, defending the greatest English writers. They