SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips

Your Complete Crash Course to Romantic

Poetry

Posted by Ashley Robinson | Jul 9, 2019 2:00:00 PM

GENERAL EDUCATION

The Romantic Era is famous for its poetry--in fact, Romanticism is one of the most in uential
periods in the history of English poetry.

It’s a pretty safe bet that you’ll have to tackle Romantic poetry at some point, whether it’s in
your English classes or on the AP Literature and Language exam. That’s why we’ve whipped
up a crash course on the Romantic Era for you! We’ll explain the following in our crash
course:

Answer the question, “What is Romanticism?” by providing a Romanticism de nition and

describing the historical context of the era
Explain Romanticism characteristics that are unique to the period’s philosophy and
literature
Give an overview of the key traits of Romanticism literature and poetry, including
Romanticism examples
List the six most important Romantic poets you need to know
List ve books for further reading if you want to learn more about the Romantic Era!
There’s a lot to cover about Romanticism, so let’s get started!

Feature image: Death of Sardanapalus by Eugène Delacroix (1827)

The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse (1888)

What Is Romanticism? De nition, Historical Context, and

Key Characteristics

So what exactly is Romanticism? Let’s start by de ning it in one sentence: Romanticism was an
intellectual and artistic movement spanning the late eighteenth century and early
nineteenth centuries that emphasized the individual mind, spirit, and body; the
emotional, irrational, imaginative, and spontaneous.

In other words, when people talk about Romanticism, they aren’t just talking about a period in
history or a type of literature. They’re also talking about a particular attitude toward humans,
ideas, and the world. Additionally, the ideas of Romanticism were presented to the world
through the visionary works of literature, art, music, and philosophy.

To fully de ne Romanticism, we also have to think about where it began. The Romantic Era is
often referred to as a “movement.” And that makes sense! This Romantic movement began in
western Europe, but eventually spread throughout Europe and to di erent parts of the world
as more people heard the ideas of Romanticism and saw them represented in art. For example,
the United States, Russia, and South America eventually contributed their own literary, musical,
and artistic interpretations of Romanticism during the era.

What Caused Romanticism?

So why did the Romantic Era start? The answer to this question is where some historical context
comes in. Like a lot of intellectual movements throughout history, Romanticism was
partially a reaction to the ideas of the era before it. The Enlightenment period (1715-1789),
which preceded the Romantic Era, placed a heavy emphasis on rationalism, science, and
empiricism. In other words, the Enlightenment Era was about facts and rational thinking!

The Enlightenment Era came to an end because of two major events: the Industrial Revolution
and the French Revolution of 1789.

When the Industrial Revolution began in Europe, the world changed almost overnight.
(Which is why we call it a “revolution,” of course!) New powered machinery was developed in
the 1780s, factories popped up all over cities, and mass production began. To access the new
jobs and opportunities created by industrialization, people began moving away from rural
areas and into the increasingly crowded cities.

A second event that in uenced the beginning of the Romantic Era was the French
Revolution of 1789. The working classes in France staged a revolt and overthrew the French
monarchy to pursue freedom and equality. The revolutionary spirit in France sparked an
interest in rebellion throughout Europe and played a big role in setting the tone of the
Romantic Era.

The Enlightenment Versus The Romantic Era

The great thinkers of the Romantic Era had something to say in response to the
Enlightenment, industrialization, and the French Revolution. First, Romantic Era thinkers
reacted to the cold, hard rationalism of the Enlightenment by reviving a connection to emotion
and feeling, the irrationality of the natural world, and a belief in the freedom and genius of the
individual thinker.

Second, in response to the mass production and urbanization fuelled by the Industrial
Revolution, the Romantics emphasized the tranquility of rural landscapes, the power and
grandeur of natural phenomena, and the need to honor and preserve the wildness of nature.

Finally, the ideals of freedom, independence, and equality that characterized the French
Revolution spread throughout Europe and became hallmarks of the spirit of Romanticism as
well. Romantic Era thinkers resisted the idea that society could control the individual mind,
creativity, and imagination, and rebelled against any forces that tried to con ne them.

And that pretty much sums up the main elements in the emergence of Romanticism! Next, we’ll
talk about one of the main forms of expression that helped de ne the characteristics of
Romanticism and really brought about the spirit of the age: Romantic poetry.

 
 

Romantic Poetry: The Superstar of the Romantic Era

It’s di cult to de ne Romanticism without talking about poetry! If you asked an English major
what comes to mind rst when you mention “Romanticism,” they’ll probably say poetry. As a
genre, Romantic poetry has its own de ning characteristics and aesthetic, and the poetic works
written during this era have many shared thematic elements that make them “Romantic.”

In general, the Romantic poets explored three main topics in their poetry:

1. the relationship between humans and nature,

2. the gothic and the surreal (more on what that means later), and
3. what the purpose of poetry is and how the identity of the poet should be understood.

The Romantic poets believed that the inner world of humans provided endless possibilities for
new ideas and ways of thinking and living, which is exempli ed in much of the poetry of the era.
We can look more closely at the three main topics of Romantic poetry to see how this spirit of
freedom and creativity was expressed throughout the Romantic Era.

Theme 1: The Relationship Between Humanity and Nature

A major theme in Romantic poetry is the relationship between humans and their emotions and
the natural world. The Romantic poets felt that humans’ internal lives and the exterior,
natural world had a lot in common: they could both be mysterious, open and vast, wild
and free, and sometimes a little bit terrifying.

Romanticism’s focus on the relationship between humanity and nature was at least partially
inspired by the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, which we mentioned earlier.
Enlightenment thinkers sought to rationalize natural phenomena. Similarly, industrialism
depended on humanity’s ability to harness natural forces, like water power and fossil fuels, and
put them to work. The new industrial society also required a big human workforce. People’s
lives were increasingly caught up in working long, harsh hours in grimy factories for low
wages...which also forced them to move into dirty, crowded cities.

So how did the Romantic poets respond to the ways that the Enlightenment and the Industrial
Revolution used and controlled nature and human beings? By portraying and praising
nature’s power to inspire awe and terror in humans instead.

Here’s what we mean: think of a time when you heard a booming clap of thunder. It probably
startled you, even though it was a pretty cool thing to hear, right? That’s what we’re talking
about when we say nature can be both awe-inspiring and scary at the same time!

To the Romantics, those moments of awe and terror in response to grand natural phenomena
were a spiritual experience. This spiritual connection to nature came to be known as “the
Sublime.” In the midst of industrialization, the Romantic poets felt they bore the responsibility
of reinvigorating that spiritual connection to nature by portraying the Sublime in their poetry.

Want to see this in action? The glori cation of nature and its wildness can be seen in William
Blake’s poem, “The Tyger,” and in William Wordsworth’s poem, “The Prelude.”

A Gothic castle in Normandy

Theme 2: The Gothic and the Surreal

When most people think of the gothic and the surreal in literature, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
is the rst thing that comes to mind. And guess what? It’s a Romantic novel! While the Gothic
and surreal are more commonly associated with ction and novels from the Romantic Era,
these themes also come up in a lot of Romantic poetry, too.
The Gothic can be thought of as portrayals of terrifying or horrifying phenomena that
readers nd thrilling. It’s kind of like that rush of adrenaline you get when you go through a
haunted house or watch a scary movie. Part of the theory behind the Gothic in literature is that
people like being scared.

Surrealism and the Gothic often go hand-in-hand. Surrealism’s goal is to subvert--or

challenge--normal life by tapping into people’s unconscious imagination. Think of a weird
dream you had recently where what you were experiencing wasn’t quite real. Whether you
were oating above your desk in math class or riding in a car with a long-lost friend, dreams
often blend bits of reality with your imagination. That, dear readers, is surrealism at work!

In poetry from the Romantic Era, the Gothic conveys a sort of mysteriousness through the
setting and characters, and it often relies on supernatural forces and the unruliness of nature
to create the sense of the surreal. If you’re reading a book or poem and there are cobwebs,
dark, decaying passageways, or mysterious women who seem capable of putting you under a
spell--and you’ve got goosebumps!--it’s possible you’re reading a piece of Gothic literature and
experiencing the surreal.

So where can you nd this in Romantic poetry? Pretty much everywhere! One good example is
in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Romantic poem “Christabel,” which portrays dark scenery, damsels
in distress, and alludes to the presence of supernatural forces. For the Romantics, using
gothic imagery was just another way to explore the vast possibilities for human emotion
and feeling, and to emphasize the ways that nature has the power to do things that are
beyond human control.

Pretty spooky, huh?

 
 A handwritten poem by Mary Wollstonecraft (1804)

Theme 3: Odes, Lyrics, and Sonnets

Every literary era is known for creating or putting its own twist on di erent literary forms. For
instance, early twentieth century novels are known for popularizing the stream of
consciousness style, where the author basically writes whatever pops into their head.
Additionally, the unique rhyme scheme of the English sonnet was developed during the
Renaissance in the 1500s!

The Romantic poets also used speci c poetic forms: odes, lyrical ballads, and sonnets were
popular among the Romantics. Let’s quickly de ne these three poetic forms.

Odes

Odes are long, stately, and lyrical. They’re written in stanzas of varied metrical patterns. In
terms of theme, odes are often xated on paying tribute to some kind of divine or supernatural
creative power that the poet admires and even seeks to possess.

Lyric Poems

Lyric poems are briefer than odes. They’re often highly emotive and written in the rst person,
so the reader gets an intimate look at the feelings of the narrator of the poem who, in Romantic
poetry, is often the poet themselves. Lyric poetry emphasizes sound and pictorial imagery
instead of a long narrative or dramatic tales.

Sonnets

Sonnets, or poems with 14 lines and patterned end-rhyme schemes, were often used by
women poets during the Romantic period to portray the feelings and moods experienced in
romantic relationships. Some poets during the era would write sonnet sequences to portray an
extended drama between lovers.

How These Forms Work in Romantic Poetry

So what does the use of these poetic forms have to do with the dominant themes of the
Romantic Era? Well,  the Romantic poets were extremely interested in understanding how
poetic genius works. In other words, they wanted to gure out what made someone a poetic
genius!
Thus, it makes sense that Romantic poets would write odes lauding the creative genius of divine
beings. Actually, Romantic poets saw themselves as creators, and they were constantly
searching for inspiration for the creative genius within themselves.

The Romantic poets also wanted to explore the complexity of how they responded emotionally
to their experiences in the natural world. Lyric poetry allowed them to express these
emotional reactions in rst-person by describing the sounds and visual images that
caused them. It was a way for poets to share their feelings with their readers.

Finally, sonnets also provided an ideal form for expression of feelings exchanged between
people. The form of the sonnet was used to move away from the logic and rationality of the
Enlightenment and more toward mood and feeling. Just take a look at Percy Shelley’s “Ode to
the West Wind” to see what we’re talking about!

Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare, who wasn't a Romantic poet but was de nitely a poetic
genius!
(Jinx!/Flickr)

Poetic Genius: Philosophizing About Poets and Poetry

We’ve already mentioned that the Romantic poets were kind of obsessed with poetry and the
people who wrote it. In fact, they loved to philosophize about where and how poets got their
inspiration and what exactly “poetic genius” means. In general, the Romantics sought to
answer the question, “What is a poet?” And they had some pretty speci c ideas about how
that question should be answered.

The Romantics de ned “genius” as the state of being like a visionary or a seer. It wasn’t a skill to
them, but more like having the capacity to view things in a way that others could not. William
Wordsworth described the creative genius as one “who has a greater knowledge of human
nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to common among mankind.” The
Romantics saw poets as individuals who just had a greater intellectual and emotional
capacity for interpreting the world than everyone else.

Wordsworth also coined the phrase “the spontaneous over ow of powerful feelings” during the
Romantic Era. For the Romantics, that phrase pretty much summed up their understanding of
how that creative genius played out in writing poetry. Writing poetry wasn’t a calculated,
meticulously planned process. At its purest, poetic inspiration occurred when the writer was so
overcome with emotion in response to something witnessed or experienced that, when they
sat down to re ect on that experience in a quiet moment later on, a poem owed forth freely.

But this kind of poetic genius wasn’t just about seeing things that others couldn’t—it was also
about putting that vision into words that everyday people could understand. The Romantic
poets lauded the ability to use the language of everyday people to capture everyday events,
too.

Top 7 Romantic Era Poets You De nitely Need to Know

If you’re taking AP English in high school, it’s pretty much guaranteed that Romantic Era poets
will come up on your reading lists and possibly even the AP exams. We’ve picked out the six
major Romantic poets that you’ll probably need to be familiar with for the AP exam, and
we’ve given you an overview of who they were, why they’re important, what their major works
are, and which Romanticism characteristics you can nd popping up in their poetry.

A caveat here: there are other poets who were important to the era, and our list provides a
small circle of representation based on one Romanticism de nition (for example: all six poets
on our list are from England...but Romantic poetry was not con ned to England!). That’s
because the AP exams and reading lists for high school English courses have been known to
pull works most regularly from this list of poets. We want you to know that there’s a lot more
out there, but that it’s almost guaranteed you’ll need to be familiar with the folks on this list
when exam time rolls around.

William Blake

Blake didn’t get much recognition for his poetry during his lifetime (his contemporaries kind of
thought he was a weirdo), but in the years since, literary scholars have praised his work for its
embodiment of the aesthetic of the Romantic Era: his poetry is creative, highly expressive,
mystical, and philosophical. Blake believed totally in freedom and equality—for the sexes,
di erent races, the individual, and, perhaps most of all, for the mind of the artist and poet.

Because of that, his poetry was some of the most in uential of the period, and references to it
frequently appear in literature today!

Works You Should Know:

“The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”

“The Lamb”
“The Tyger,”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Coleridge is considered a founder of the Romantic Movement (along with his BFF, William
Wordsworth), and his belief that deeply profound poetic ideas can be expressed using
common, everyday language had a tremendous in uence on the poetry of the Romantic
Era.

Coleridge was known by his contemporaries to be a wordsmith through and through—he was
meticulous in his crafting and revision of his poems, and his fellow poets and philosophers
were often inspired by his approach to poetic language and philosophy.

Works You Should Know:

“Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

“Kubla Khan”

 
 William Wordsworth by William Shuter

William Wordsworth

Perhaps the most familiar poet of the Romantic Era, William Wordsworth also helped to
establish the movement with his joint publication of Lyrical Ballads with Coleridge. Wordsworth
was England’s poet laureate from 1843 until his death in 1850, which means he was kind of a
big deal.

Wordsworth loved to venture about in the natural world, and his frequent travels and
excursions across Europe’s most breathtaking landscapes frequently in uenced the
imagery in his poems. Wordsworth also gave what might be considered the Romantic Era’s
most famous de nition of poetry, which he called “the spontaneous over ow of powerful
feelings.”  

Works You Should Know

The Prelude (It’s book length, so we recommend reading one section to get a sense of it.
Just remember: it’s his most famous work!)
“Tintern Abbey”
“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”

George Gordon, Lord Byron

Known simply as “Lord Byron,” this Romantic poet lived fast and died young—at the age of 36
from a fever he contracted in Greece while ghting in the Greek War of Independence. Though
his years were short and his contemporaries often rolled their eyes at his aristocratic excesses
and frequent romantic scandals, Lord Byron is still known as one of the most in uential
Romantic poets.

Works You Should Know

“Darkness”
Don Juan (Also book length, and also Byron’s most famous work. The Romantics loved
long poems!)

Percy Shelley by Alfred Clint

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Shelley achieved fame and recognition for his poetry posthumously, when people began
praising the genius of his long, philosophical and lyric poetry. Shelley also ran around with
some famous friends—Lord Byron and John Keats were part of his inner circle—and he was
even married to Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. Shelley’s philosophical ideas about
nonviolent resistance have in uenced many political thinkers and civil rights activists in the
years since his death.

Works You Should Know

Prometheus Unbound (widely considered Shelley’s masterpiece)

“Ozymandias”

 
John Keats

Like Lord Byron, Keats died far too young—at the age of 25—from an unfortunate bout of
tuberculosis. His poetic works only saw publication in the four years leading up to his death,
and he slowly began receiving praise for his works after he died.

Keats is known for writing odes that are lled with sensual imagery from the natural
world and heavy emotion. As a result, he’s now known as one of the foremost poets of the
Romantic Era...and of the English language in general!

Works You Should Know

“Ode to a Nightingale”
“To Sleep.”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

You’ve probably noticed that there aren’t very many women on this list. That’s because during
the Romantic period, poetry was considered a masculine art! But that’s not to say that women
weren’t writing poetry at all. One of the most famous poets of the Romantic period was
Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Browning’s poetry often confronted social injustices of the period, including the
subjugation of women, child labor, and slavery. While that made her unpopular with some
readers, her brave confrontation of those issues is what makes her work widely read today.

Works You Should Know

“How Do I Love Thee?” (Sonnet 43)

“The Cry of the Children”
Aurora Leigh (which is actually a novel written in verse)

 
 The Ozymandias Colossus in Egypt
(Christopher Michel/Flickr)

2 Romantic Poems, Explicated

“Explicating a poem” sounds like doing surgery, and that’s kind of what it’s like. What it really
means to explicate a poem is to simply look at all of the di erent literary elements that
make up the poem and analyze their meaning. Explicating poetry can also help you discover
new Romanticism de nitions that you hadn’t thought of before!

To help you see how the poetry of the era exempli es Romanticism characteristics, we’re going
to brie y explicate, or analyze, two Romantic poems for you below.

“Ozymandias,” by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Before getting into a sample explication, let’s start with the poem itself. You can read the poem
below and look back at it as we analyze it afterward!

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert....Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
 Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

We aren’t going to explicate every single line of Ozymandias, but we are going analyze
Shelley’s use of a historical allusion and strong imagery to get an idea of what the major
theme of the poem is.

First, we’ll start with Shelley’s historical allusion to Ozymandias. (Remember: an allusion is a
reference that doesn’t name the object speci cally. Think of it as an implied mention.) Here, the
poem alludes to Ozymandias. Ozymandias was the Greek name of a powerful pharaoh from
ancient Egypt. While we can’t know for sure, it’s likely that Shelley is alluding to the real,
historical person.

Most of the poem is made up of the narrator’s description of a giant, broken, stone statue of
Ozymandias through imagery. The traveler describes Ozymandias’s face in the statue as
frowning, sneering, and cold. In text engraved on a pedestal at the bottom of the statue,
Ozymandias himself speaks to those who might view the statue of him in the future, saying,
“Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.” Ozymandias seems to be speaking to all kings and
rulers who might follow him to let them know that, no matter how great they become, they’ll
never surpass his greatness. And, yet, despite the grandeur of the statue of Ozymandias, the
traveler tells readers it has fallen into total decay.  

So how does all this imagery of a decaying statue in the desert exemplify Romanticism
characteristics? Well, you probably remember that the Romantic poets were really interested
in thinking about the tension between human power and the power of nature. Shelley
points out how even the most powerful people in history still cannot stand up to nature’s power
over time. In the end, everybody—even the mighty, like Ozymandias—return to the dust
to be a part of nature again.

 
 

 “I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud,” by William Wordsworth

Here’s a second poem we can explicate for you—a lyric poem by William Wordsworth. Give it a
read, then check out our brief analysis below!

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That oats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden da odils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They ash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure lls,
And dances with the da odils.

 
In Wordsworth’s poem, the narrator—also a poet—is doing what the Romantic poets
loved to do best: reveling in the beauty and grandeur of nature. Most of the poem is made
up of rich visual imagery: the poet is describing a long line of da odils that stretch along the
bay of a lake. While the sparkling waves of the lake are beautiful to the poet, they can’t compare
to the lighthearted swaying of the da odils in the breeze.

The lake and the da odils aren’t the only images of nature that the poet describes, though. At
the beginning of the poem, he uses a simile to compare himself to a process that happens in
the natural world: the movement, or “wandering,” of a single cloud in the sky. Like a lonely
cloud, the poet wanders alone through nature...until he stumbles upon the da odils. The
narrator then uses personi cation to make the da odils seem somewhat human or
supernatural: he describes them as “tossing their heads in sprightly dance.”

While the poet is delighted by the sight of the dancing da odils during his walk, he ends the
poem by expressing how the memory of the da odils lls him with pleasure over and over
again when he is back home, alone, away from nature.

So here’s how Wordsworth’s poem exempli es some characteristics of Romanticism.

Remember that idea about the Sublime? The poet in Wordsworth’s poem is de nitely
experiencing sublime awe in response to nature when he sees the da odils dancing.

The poet also experiences the “oneness” with nature that the Romantic poets
relentlessly pursued. The internal spirit of the poet is at one with the external spirit of nature
as he sees it on his walk: both are lighthearted and happy. Nature revitalizes him in a way that
urban, industrial life can’t.

Finally, Wordsworth implies that the poet’s memory of the da odil’s sprightly dance
itself embodies a poem. We mentioned earlier that Wordsworth de ned poetry as “the
spontaneous over ow of powerful feelings” that “takes its origin from emotion recollected in
tranquility.” That’s exactly what Wordsworth describes in the nal stanza of the poem. When
the poet is alone, tranquilly resting, he is overcome by a recollection of the da odils’ dance, and
re-experiences the same powerful feelings he felt that day on his walk by the lake.

 
 

4 Best Books To Build Your Knowledge of the Romantic Era

If you want to learn more about the Romantic Era and Romantic poetry, there are lots of books
out there that can help supplement your knowledge. We’ve selected four books that we think
could help you learn more about Romanticism, depending on what you want to explore. Check
out the four books for additional reading on Romanticism in our list below!

The Penguin Book of American Poetry

This book provides a collection of literary works from the Romantic period. It includes poetry
and essays written by the famous poets listed above—Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Byron,
Shelley, and Keats—but it also includes works by some lesser-known writers, too.

Additionally, the structure of this book is also extremely user-friendly: the book’s editors
have divided up the included works into sections based on dominant Romanticism
characteristics, including the era’s main themes and literary forms, like “Romantic Solitude,
Su ering, and Endurance,” “Ennobling Interchange: Man and Nature,” and “The Gothic and
Surreal,” to name just a few. If you’re looking for quick access to writings on a particular theme
of Romanticism, this book will come in handy.

Romantic Poetry: An Annotated Anthology

If you nd Romantic poetry confusing and are looking for a reading and analysis guide,
this book is de nitely one to look into. Romantic Poetry: An Annotated Anthology takes an
in-depth look at a selective list of poems written mostly by the “big names” of poets we listed
earlier. Its examinations of individual poems are highly detailed, and they break down the
literary elements you want to become familiar with for explication and analysis, like theme,
genre, structure, rhyme, form, and imagery.

Another plus with this text is that it provides contextual and background info about each poem
as well, so if you need to be able to talk about how a poem t into the historical context or the
Romantic Era more generally, these annotations can give you a place to start.

Young Romantics: The Shelleys, Byron, and Other Tangled Lives

One of the big themes of the Romantic Era was a fascination with the identity and freedom of
the poet. Young Romantics: The Shelleys, Byron, and Other Tangled Lives explores that theme
in a narrative-style by describing the relationships among a talented, passionate, and close-knit
group of writers: the Shelleys, Byron, Keats, and other young writers and intellectuals who were
included in the group.

If you need help interpreting the relationship between some of the Romantic poets’
personal lives and their writing, this book will provide you with a unique perspective.
Young Romantics is also a great option if you want to learn more about how women fared
during the Romantic period.

Romanticism: A Very Short Introduction

If you’ve made it to the end of this guide and you’re still asking, “What is romanticism?”
then Michael Ferber’s Romanticism: A Very Short Introduction could be a good resource
for you. Ferber’s book is exactly what it says it is: a very short introduction to Romanticism as
an intellectual movement and era of philosophical thought.

This book doesn’t limit itself to discussion of literature or a single country and instead explores
the birth, development, and decline of Romanticism across regions and artistic mediums. If you
want a bird’s eye view of the Romantic Era, Ferber’s book is a great choice!

 
 

What’s Next?

Background information—like the stu we talk about in this post!—is important to

understanding literature. But you need more tools in order to analyze it properly. Here’s a
list of the 31 literary devices you must know in order to really understand and talk about
literature. (Oh, and here’s a look at the 9 literary devices that you’ll nd in every piece of
literature ever.)

When it comes to textual analysis, practice makes perfect. Why not pick up a good book
and test out your skills? Added bonus: the books on this list are great choices for the AP
Literature exam, too!

Speaking of the AP Literature exam, here’s an expert guide to the exam and tips and tricks
for tackling the multiple choice section.

These recommendations are based solely on our knowledge and experience. If you purchase
an item through one of our links, PrepScholar may receive a commission.

Have friends who also need help with test prep? Share this article!

Tweet Share Like 17 Share

 About the Author
Ashley Su é Robinson has a Ph.D. in 19th Century
English Literature. As a content writer for PrepScholar,
Ashley is passionate about giving college-bound
students the in-depth information they need to get into
the school of their dreams.

Ashley Robinson

Get Free
Get FREE EXCLUSIVE insider tips on
how to ACE THE SAT/ACT.

Guides Your email

SIGN UP!
to Boost Your SAT/ACT
100% Privacy. No spam ever.

Ask a Question Below

Have any questions about this article or other topics? Ask below and we'll reply!

Jean Craig 3/2/2020, 2:20:54 AM

What e ect did the industrial revolution have on romantic poetry?

Reply to Jean Craig

Ashley Robinson 3/6/2020, 2:46:15 AM

That's a great question! The Industrial Revolution takes place at the very, very end of the
Romantic period...and it's actually one of the things that moves literature from the
Romantic Period in to the Victorian Period!

Reply to Ashley Robinson

First Name

Last Name

Email

Comment
 protected by reCAPTCHA
Privacy - Terms

Submit Comment

Subscribe to our blog today!

Get Free Guides to
Boost Your SAT/ACT
Score Your E-mail

SUBMIT
100% Privacy. No spam!

Custom Search Search

Improve With Our Famous Guides

SAT ACT For All

Prep Prep Students

The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to

Improve 160+ SAT Points

How to Get a Perfect 1600, by a Perfect

Scorer

Series: How to Get 800 on Each SAT Section:

Score 800 on SAT Math Score 800 on SAT Score 800 on SAT
Reading Writing

Series: How to Get to 600 on Each SAT Section:

 Score 600 on SAT Math Score 600 on SAT Score 600 on SAT
Reading Writing

Free Complete O cial SAT Practice

Tests

What SAT Target Score Should You Be

Aiming For?

15 Strategies to Improve Your SAT

Essay

Michael improved by
370 POINTS!

FIND OUT HOW

Stay Informed

Get the latest articles and test prep tips!

  

Looking for Graduate School Test Prep?

 Check out our top-rated graduate blogs here:

GRE Online Prep Blog

GMAT Online Prep Blog

TOEFL Online Prep Blog

Free
SAT/ACT Tips
to Boost Your Score

Get EXCLUSIVE insider tips on how to ACE THE SAT and ACT for FREE!

Your E-mail

SUBMIT
100% Privacy. No spam ever.

"I am absolutely overjoyed and cannot thank you enough for helping me!”

Holly R.

Home Help
Who We Are Become An Instructor
How It Works SAT / ACT Online Prep Blog
Results GRE Online Prep Blog
Pricing GMAT Online Prep Blog
Tutoring Questions? TOEFL Online Prep Blog
Email Us Or Call Us At 1 (866) 811-5546
Groups
Sample Lesson

© PrepScholar 2013-2018. All rights SAT® is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination
reserved BoardTM. The College Entrance Examination BoardTM does not endorse, nor is
it a liated in any way with the owner or any content of this site.
Terms of Service Privacy Policy