Lecture 8 (9)

1.

LECTURE 8
ROMANTICISM IN
ENGLISH LITERATURE
Senior lecturer: Sartbayeva E.K.

2.

Lecture 8
• 1. The description of “Romanticism”
• 2. Six characteristics of “Romanticism”
• 3. Pre-Romanticism: Poetry of Robert Burns
• 4. Creative activities of William Blake
• 5. Creative activities of William Wordsworth
• 6. Creative activities of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• The main concepts: Romanticism, Nature poets, London
romanticists

3.

The term Romanticism does not stem directly from the
concept of love, but rather from the French word romaunt (a
romantic story told in verse).
Romanticism focused on emotions and the inner life of the
writer, and often used autobiographical material to inform
the work or even provide a template for it, unlike traditional
literature at the time.
Romanticism celebrated the primitive and elevated "regular
people" as being deserving of celebration, which was an
innovation at the time.
Romanticism also fixated on nature as a primordial force and
encouraged the concept of isolation as necessary for spiritual
and artistic development.

4.

Romanticism was a literary movement that began in the late
18th century, ending around the middle of the 19th century—
although its influence continues to this day. Marked by a focus
on the individual a respect for nature and the primitive, and a
celebration of the common man, Romanticism can be seen as
a reaction to the huge changes in society that occurred during
this period, including the revolutions that burned through
countries like France and the United States, ushering in grand
experiments in democracy.

5.

Characteristics of Romanticism
Romantic literature is marked by six primary characteristics:
celebration of nature, focus on the individual and spirituality,
celebration of isolation and melancholy, interest in the common
man, idealization of women, and personification and pathetic
fallacy.
Celebration of Nature
Romantic writers saw nature as a teacher and a source of infinite
beauty. One of the most famous works of Romanticism is John
Keats’ To Autumn (1820). Keats personifies the season and follows
its progression from the initial arrival after summer, through the
harvest season, and finally to autumn’s end as winter takes its place.

6.

Celebration of Isolation and Melancholy
Ralph Waldo Emerson was a very influential writer in Romanticism; his books of essays
explored many of the themes of the literary movement and codified them. His 1841 essay
Self-Reliance is a seminal work of Romantic writing in which he exhorts the value of
looking inward and determining your own path, and relying on only your own resources.
Related to the insistence on isolation, melancholy is a key feature of many works of
Romanticism, usually seen as a reaction to inevitable failure—writers wished to express
the pure beauty they perceived and failure to do so adequately resulted in despair like the
sort expressed by Percy Bysshe Shelley in “A Lament”:
O world! O life! O time!
On whose last steps I climb.
Trembling at that where I had stood before;
When will return the glory of your prime?
No more—Oh, never more!

7.

Interest in the Common Man
William Wordsworth was one of the first poets to embrace the concept of writing
that could be read, enjoyed, and understood by anyone. He eschewed overly stylized
language and references to classical works in favor of emotional imagery conveyed
in simple, elegant language, as in his most famous poem “I Wandered Lonely as a
Cloud”:
I wandered lonely as a Cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and Hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden Daffodils;
Beside the Lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

8.

Idealization of Women
In works such as Poe’s The Raven, women were always presented as
idealized love interests, pure and beautiful, but usually without anything
else to offer. Ironically, the most notable novels of the period were
written by women (Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, and Mary Shelley, for
example), but had to be initially published under male pseudonyms
because of these attitudes. Much Romantic literature is infused with the
concept of women being perfect innocent beings to be adored, mourned,
and respected—but never touched or relied upon.

9.

Personification and Pathetic Fallacy
Romantic literature’s fixation on nature is characterized by the heavy
use of both personification and pathetic fallacy. Mary Shelley used these
techniques to great effect in Frankenstein:
‘Its fair lakes reflect a blue and gentle sky; and, when troubled by the
winds, their tumult is but as the play of a lively infant, when compared
to the roarings of the giant ocean’.

10.

Robert Burns (1759 -1796)
• All of Robert Burns’ poetry shows him to be one of the
greatest masters of lyrical verse, a warm patriot of his
native country. His poetry is deeply democratic & full of
criticism directed against the landlords, the priests &
the government officials. His sympathy lay with the
poor, he hoped for a better future for the people, for the
equality & justice of all.
• Robert Burns first began to write poetry at the age of
16. Life was hard for the family. Robert's father died in
1784 burdened with debts. The poet needed some
money to publish some of his poems. 600 copies of
"Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect" were printed in
July 1786. Their success was complete, their edition was
quickly sold out & Robert Burns became well-known &
popular.

11.

• He went to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. At first Robert
Burns was warmly welcomed but soon the society of England
grew tired of him & forgot all about the poet. The popular
character of Burns’ poetry was foreign to their taste. The story of
Robert Burns' short life is full of sadness. He worked much on his
farm, but could not make it pay. In 1789 his friends got him a
position as a tax collector. This work was not an easy one, but it
gave him much time to think out his poems & at this period of
his life Robert Burns wrote much. He had five children. By 1796
Robert Burns' health had greatly deteriorated in 1796 at the age
of 37, the great poet of Scotland breathed his last breath. The
most popular poems by Robert Burns are "John Barleycorn",
"The Tree of Liberty", "Jolly Beggars", "My heart's in the
Highland" & others.

12.

Poetry of Romanticism
Useful as it is to trace the common elements in Romantic poetry, there
was little conformity among the poets themselves. It is misleading to
read the poetry of the first Romantics as if it had been written primarily
to express their feelings. Their concern was rather to change
the intellectual climate of the age.
The landscape is often prominent in the poetry of this period, so that the
Romantics are often described as 'nature poets’.

13.

William Blake
William Blake, (born Nov. 28, 1757, London,
Eng.—died Aug. 12, 1827, London), English
engraver, artist, poet, and visionary, author
of exquisite lyrics in Songs of
Innocence (1789) and Songs of
Experience (1794) and profound and difficult
“prophecies,” such as Visions of the
Daughters of Albion (1793), The First Book
of Urizen (1794), Milton (1804),
and Jerusalem (1804).

14.

Songs of Innocence and of Experience: Shewing the Two
Contrary States of the Human Soul (1794) is arguably William
Blake’s most well-known poetic composition. The Lamb and the
Tyger function as complementary symbols of the protection and
corruption of innocence, respectively. Much of Blake’s other poetry
concerns his politics, visions, and self-invented mythology.
Many of William Blake’s contemporaries either ignored his work or
outright ridiculed him. Much of Blake’s art and poetry went
unnoticed by the general public. Works shown at his own exhibition
(1809–10) received a scathing review from ’The Examiner’ that
cut deeply, damaging Blake’s career beyond repair.

15.

William Blake is considered a central figure in the history of
both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. The poet,
painter, and printmaker William Blake (1757–1827) was largely
disconnected from the major streams of the literature of the time,
that’s why Blake was generally unrecognized during his lifetime.
Considered mad by contemporaries for his views, Blake is held in
high regard by later critics for his expressiveness and creativity, and
for the philosophical and mystical undercurrents within his work.
Among his most important works are Songs of Innocence (1789)
and Songs of Experience (1794).

16.

William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth, (born April 7,
1770, Cockermouth, Cumberland,
England—died April 23, 1850,
Rydal Mount, Westmorland), English
poet whose Lyrical Ballads (1798),
written with Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
helped launch the English Romantic
movement.

17.

Wordsworth was born in the Lake District of northern England, the
second of five children of a modestly prosperous estate manager. He lost
his mother when he was 7 and his father when he was 13, upon which
the orphan boys were sent off by guardian uncles to a grammar school at
Hawkshead, a village in the heart of the Lake District. At Hawkshead
Wordsworth received an excellent education in classics, literature, and
mathematics, but the chief advantage to him there was the chance to
indulge in the boyhood pleasures of living and playing in the outdoors.

18.

Legacy
William Wordsworth was the central figure in the English Romantic
revolution in poetry. His contribution to it was threefold. First, he
formulated in his poems and his essays a new attitude toward
nature. This was more than a matter of introducing nature imagery
into his verse: it amounted to a fresh view of the organic relation
between man and the natural world, and it culminated
in metaphors of a wedding between nature and the human mind
and, beyond that, in the sweeping metaphor of nature as emblematic
of the mind of God, a mind that “feeds upon infinity” and “broods
over the dark abyss.”

19.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, (born October
21, 1772, Ottery St. Mary, Devonshire,
England—died July 25, 1834, Highgate,
near London), English lyrical poet, critic,
and philosopher. His Lyrical
Ballads, written with William
Wordsworth, heralded the
English Romantic movement, and
his Biographia Literaria (1817) is the
most significant work of general literary
criticism produced in the
English Romantic period.

20.

Poetry
Coleridge is one of the most important figures in English poetry.
His poems directly and deeply influenced all the major poets of the
age. He was known by his contemporaries as a meticulous
craftsman who was more rigorous in his careful reworking of his
poems than any other poet, and Southey and Wordsworth were
dependent on his professional advice. His influence on Wordsworth
is particularly important because many critics have credited
Coleridge with the very idea of "Conversational Poetry". The idea
of utilising common, everyday language to express profound poetic
images and ideas for which Wordsworth became so famous may
have originated almost entirely in Coleridge’s mind. It is difficult to
imagine Wordsworth’s great poems, The Excursion or The Prelude,
ever having been written without the direct influence of Coleridge’s
originality.