Romantic

Poets

First generation poets Second generation poets

• William Blake • George Gordon, Lord Byron
• William Wordsworth • Percy Bysshe Shelley
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge • John Keats

NOTE: These poets were not known as ‘Romantic poets’ in their own day.
Wordsworth & Coleridge (and also Robert Southey) were called the “Lake
Poets” because of their links with the Lake District in northwest England; the
poetry of Shelley & Byron was called the “Satanic School” of poetry because of
their unconventional lifestyles & irreverent ideas; Keats’s lower-class status
led to the snobbish label “Cockney School” being applied to his work. The
term
‘Romantic’, as a means of labelling a literary school began to be applied from
the second half of the 19th cent.
 Use of the word ‘Romantic’ to designate a
literary school
In 1864, Outlines of English Literature by Thomas B. Shaw was reprinted under
the title A History of English Literature. Shaw’s book was published first in St.
Petersburg in 1846 & again in London in 1849. Chapter 19 of the 1864 book was
entitled ‘The Dawn of Romantic Poetry’ and opens thus:

“The great revolution in popular taste and sentiment which substituted what is
called the romantic type in literature for the cold and clear-cut artificial spirit
of that classicism which is exhibited in its highest form in the writings of Pope
was, like all powerful and durable movements, whether in politics or in letters,
gradual. …indications soon began to be perceptible of a tendency to seek for
subjects and forms of expressions in a wider, more passionate, and more
natural sphere of nature and emotion.”
First
Generation
Poets
(Senior
Romantics)
Blake
(1757-1827)
Principal Works

1783: Poetical Sketches

1789: Songs of Innocence; The Book of Thel
1790: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
1793: Vision of the Daughters of Albion;
America: a Prophecy
1794: Songs of Experience; The Book of Urizen;
Europe: a Prophecy
1795: The Song of Los; The Book of Los; The
Book of Ahania
1797: The Four Zoas, or Vala
1804: Milton; Jerusalem
William Blake, Newton, 1795
Wordsworth
(1770-1850)
Principal Works

1798 (with Coleridge): Lyrical Ballads

1805: The Prelude, or Growth of a Poet’s
Mind
1807: Poems in Two Volumes (includes
“Ode on the Intimations of Immortality”,
“Resolution and Independence”, “The
Solitary Reaper”, etc.)
1814: The Excursion
Coleridge
(1772-1834) Principal Works
1796: Poems on Various Subjects
(includes ‘The Eolian Harp’)
1798: ‘Ode to France’;
‘Fears in
Solitude’; ‘Frost at
Midnight’
1798 (with
Wordsworth): Lyrical Ballads
(‘The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner’)
1802: ‘Dejection: an
Ode’
1816: Christabel and
Other Poems
(‘Kubla Khan’; ‘Pains of
Sleep’; ‘The Lime-Tree Bower my
Prison’)
1817: Biographia Literaria
 On the composition of
“TheLyrical Ballads
thought suggested itself (to which of us I do not recollect) that a
series of poems might be composed of two sorts. In the one, the
incidents and agents were to be (in part at least) supernatural – and the
excellence aimed at was to consist in the interesting of the affections by
the dramatic truth of such emotions as would naturally accompany
such situations, supposing them real. And real in this sense they have
been to every human being who, from whatever source of delusion, has
at any time believed himself under supernatural agency. For the second
class, subjects were to be chosen from ordinary life. The characters and
incidents were to be such as will be found in every village and its
vicinity, where there is a meditative and feeling mind to seek after them
or to notice them when they present themselves.”
(From Biographia Literaria, Chapter 14)
 cont
“In this idea originated the pland.
of the Lyrical Ballads, in which it was
agreed that my endeavours should be directed to persons and characters
supernatural, or at least romantic – yet so as to transfer, from our
inward nature, a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to
procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of
disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith. Mr
Wordsworth, on the other hand, was to propose to himself as his object,
to give the charm of novelty to things of every day, and to excite a
feeling analogous to the supernatural, by awakening the mind’s
attention to the lethargy of custom, and directing it to the loveliness and
the wonders of the world before us – an inexhaustible treasure but for
which, in consequence of the film of familiarity and selfish solicitude,
we have eyes yet see not, ears that hear not, and hearts that neither feel
nor understand.”
(From Biographia Literaria, Chapter 14)
 From Preface to Lyrical
Ballads (1802)
“The principal object, then, which I proposed to myself in these poems, was to
choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe
them, throughout, as far as was possible, in a selection of language really used
by men; and, at the same time, to throw over them a certain colouring of
imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an
unusual way; …Low and rustic life was generally chosen, because in that
condition, the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can
attain their maturity, are less under restraint, and speak a plainer and more
emphatic language; because in that situation our elementary feelings coexist in a
state of greater simplicity, and, consequently may be more accurately
contemplated and more forcibly communicated; because the manners of rural
life germinate from those elementary feelings; and, from the necessary character
of rural occupations, are more easily comprehended; and are more durable; and
lastly, because in that condition the passions of men are incorporated with the
beautiful and permanent forms of nature.”

(NOTE: There are two main versions of the Preface to Lyrical Ballads. The first is that of
1800 (the 1798 edition of the poems had been prefaced simply by an ‘Advertisement’)
and the second that of 1802, which is the basis of Wordsworth’s final version of 1805.)
 contd.
“The language, too, of these men is adopted (purified indeed from what appear
to be its real defects, from all lasting and rational causes of dislike or disgust)
because such men hourly communicate with the best objects from which the
best part of language is originally derived; and because, from their rank in
society and the sameness and narrow circle of their intercourse, being less
under the influence of social vanity they convey their feelings and notions in
simple and unelaborated expressions. Accordingly, such a language, arising out
of repeated experience and regular feelings , is a more permanent, and a far
more philosophical language, than that which is frequently substituted for it by
poets, who think that they are conferring honour upon themselves and their art,
in proportion as they separate themselves from the sympathies of men, and
indulge in arbitrary and capricious habits of expression, in order to furnish
food for fickle tastes, and fickle appetites, of their own creation.” ***

*** In Chapter 17 of Biographia Literaria Coleridge objects to Wordsworth’s

arguments about the language of poetry.
 contd.
“Taking up the subject, then, upon general grounds, I ask what is meant by the
word “poet”? What is a poet?** To whom does he address himself ? And what
language is to be expected from him? He is a man speaking to men – a man (it
is true) endued with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness,
who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive
soul, than are supposed to be common among mankind; a man pleased with his
own passions and volitions, and who rejoices more than other men in the spirit
of life that is in him, delighting to contemplate similar volitions and passions as
manifested in the goings-on of the universe, and habitually impelled to create
them where he does not find them. …
(** Shelley writes about the function of a poet in A Defence of Poetry)
I have said that poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it
takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity: the emotion is
contemplated till by a species of reaction the tranquillity gradually disappears,
and an emotion, kindred to that which was before the subject of contemplation,
is gradually produced, and does itself actually exist in the mind.”
Second Generation
Poets (Junior
Romantics)
Byron (1788-
1824) Principal Works

1807: Hours of Idleness

1809: English Bards and Scotch
Reviewers
1812-18: Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (4
cantos)
1813: The Bride of Abydos, The Giaour
1814: The Corsair, Lara
1817: Manfred (drama)
1818: Beppo
1819-24: Don Juan (16 cantos)
1821: Cain (drama)
1822: The Vision of Judgment
Shelley
(1792-1822)Principal Works
1813: Queen Mab
1818: The Revolt of Islam
1820: Prometheus Unbound, “Ode to the
West Wind”, “The Cloud”, “To a Skylark”
1821: Adonais
1821: A Defence of Poetry
1832: The Mask of Anarchy
 Shelley’s idea of
the poet
“Poets, according to the circumstances of the age and nation in which they
appeared, were called in the earlier epochs of the world legislators or
prophets.**A poet essentially comprises and unites both these characters. For
he not only beholds intensely the present as it is, and discovers those laws
according to which present things ought to be ordered, but he beholds the
future in the present, and his thoughts are the germs of the flower and the fruit
of latest time.” (A Defence of Poetry)

** In his Apologie for Poetrie, Sir Philip Sidney had observed: ‘Among the
Romans a poet was called “Vates”, which is as much as a diviner, foreseer, or
prophet … so heavenly a title did that excellent people bestow upon this
heartravishing knowledge.’
Keats
(1795-1821)
Principal Works

1816: “On First Looking into Chapman’s

Homer”
1817: Poems (includes “Sleep and Poetry”)
1818: Endymion, Hyperion: A Fragment
(written, 1818-19)
1819: The Fall of Hyperion: A Dream
(begun in 1819; unfinished fragment)
1820: Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes,
La Belle Dame sans Merci, the five great
odes – “Ode to Psyche”, “Ode to a
Nightingale”, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”,
“Ode on Melancholy” & “Ode to
Autumn”
Two Revolutions, Two Historic
Documents
American Declaration of Independence Declaration of the Rights of Man and of
(4 July 1776) the Citizen
(26 August 1789)
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of
the Citizen (26 August,
1789)
 Revolutionary & Napoleonic Period in
France (1789-1815)
• 1789: The French Revolution begins with the storming of the Bastille on July 14. On
August 26, the new National Assembly passes the Declaration of the Rights of Man
and Citizen.
• 1792: September Massacres (2-6 Sept)
• 1793: King Louis XVI (Jan 21) & Queen Marie-Antoinette (Oct 16) executed; England
joins the alliance against France.
• 1793-94: [The Jacobin**] Reign of Terror under Robespierre.
• 1804: Napoleon crowned emperor.
• 1815: Napoleon defeated at Waterloo.
** Jacobins: The Jacobins of the French Revolution were members of a society (formed in
May 1789) called the Jacobin Club, a radically democratic political club. Led by
Robespierre, the Jacobin Club became increasingly extreme, and in 1793 instigated the
Reign of Terror.
1792-1802: French Revolutionary Wars
1803-1815: Napoleonic Wars

NOTE: In British cultural history, the term ‘English Jacobins’ was applied to the English
supporters of the French Revolution or anyone with radical political views.
 Impact of the French
• Revolution
The early period of the French Revolution, marked by
the storming of the Bastille (14 July 1789) and the
Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (26
August 1789), evoked enthusiastic support from English
liberals and radicals alike. The overthrow of the ancien
régime in France, a political system that encouraged
decadence and luxury legitimated by the absolute rule of
the king, was almost universally heralded in Britain.

• Wordsworth visited France twice during the

revolutionary period. He recalls the excitement that he
felt during the period in his autobiographical poem, The
Prelude.
 Early Reactions to the
French
“… few Revolution
persons but those who have lived in it can conceive or comprehend what
the memory of the French Revolution was, nor what a visionary world seemed to
open upon those who were just entering it. Old things seemed passing away, and
nothing was dreamt of but the regeneration of the human race. “ – Robert Southey

“… Europe was rejoiced,

France standing on the top of golden hours,
And human nature seeming born again.”

(Wordsworth, The Prelude, 1805, 6. 352-54)

“Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,

But to be young was very heaven! “

(Wordsworth, The Prelude, 1805, 10.

696-97)
 Impact of the French
•
Revolution
Liberal English sympathizers, however, dropped off as the Revolution
followed its increasingly grim course: the accession to power by Jacobin
extremists intent on purifying their new republic by purging it of its enemies;
the “September Massacres” of the imprisoned nobility in 1792, invasion of
the Rhineland and the Netherlands, which brought England into the war
against France; the guillotining of thousands in the Reign of Terror under
Robespierre; and, after the execution in their turn of the men who had
directed the Terror, the emergence of Napoleon, first as dictator, then as
emperor of France. Wordsworth lamented in The Prelude:
… become oppressors in their turn,
Frenchmen had changed a war of self-defence
For one of conquest; losing sight of all
Which they had struggled for … (1805 ed.;
10.696-97)
• Napoleon, whose rise through the ranks of the army had seemed to
epitomize the egalitarian principles of the Revolution, himself became an
arch-aggressor, a despot, and would-be founder of a new imperial dynasty.
He seemed to have returned the country to a dictatorship much like the
absolute monarchy the Revolution had originally sought to overthrow.
 Radical thinkers of the
Romantic era

Thomas Paine Mary Wollstonecraft William Godwin

(1737-1809) (1759-97) (1756-1836)
• Common Sense • A Vindication of the • An Enquiry
(1776) Rights of Men Concerning
• Rights of Man (1790) Political
(1791, 1792) • A Vindication of the Justice (1793)
• The Age of Rights of Woman
Reason (1792)
(1794)
 Impact of the French
Revolution
Three important books epitomize the radical
social thinking stimulated by the Revolution:
Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the
Rights of Men (1790) justified the Revolution
against Edmund Burke’s attack in his Reflections
on the Revolution in France (1790). Thomas
Paine’s Rights of Man (1791-92) also justified the
Revolution against Burke’s attack and advocated
for England a democratic republic that was to be
achieved, if lesser pressures failed, by popular
revolution. More important as an influence (on
 Impact of the French
Revolution
Shelley, who was born three years after the outbreak of the French Revolution,
described the Revolution as the “master theme of the epoch in which we live” in a
letter to Byron on 6 September 1816.
In the concluding paragraph of A Defence of Poetry (1821), he wrote:

“It is impossible to read the compositions of the most celebrated writers of the
present day without being startled with the electric life which burns within their
words. They measure the circumference and sound the depths of human nature
with a comprehensive and all-penetrating spirit, and they are themselves perhaps
the most sincerely astonished at its manifestations, for it is less their own spirit than
the spirit of the age. Poets are the hierophants [expounders] of an unapprehended
inspiration, the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the
present, the words which express what they understand not; the trumpets which
sing to battle, and feel not what they inspire; the influence which is moved not, but
moves. Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.“
 Political Revolution &
Literary Revolution
“Mr. Wordsworth is at the head of that which has been denominated the Lake school of
poetry. …This school of poetry had its origin in the French revolution, or rather in those
sentiments and opinions which produced that revolution. …Our poetical literature had,
towards the close of the last century, degenerated into the most trite, insipid, and
mechanical of all things, in the hands of the followers of Pope and the old French school of
poetry. It wanted something to stir it up, and it found that some thing in the principles
and events of the French revolution. From the impulse it thus received, it rose at once
from the most servile imitation and tamest commonplace, to the utmost pitch of
singularity and paradox. The change in the belles-lettres was as complete, and to many
persons as startling, as the change in politics, with which it went hand in hand. There was
a mighty ferment in the heads of statesmen and poets, kings and people. According to the
prevailing notions, all was to be natural and new. Nothing that was established was to be
tolerated. All the commonplace figures of poetry, tropes, allegories, personifications …
were instantly discarded; a classical allusion was considered as a piece of antiquated
foppery; capital letters were no more allowed in print, than letters-patent of nobility were
permitted in real life; kings and queens were dethroned from their rank and station in
legitimate tragedy or epic poetry, as they were decapitated elsewhere; rhyme was looked
upon as a relic of the feudal system, and regular metre was abolished along with regular
government.“ – William Hazlitt, ‘On the Living Poets’ (Lectures on the English Poets, 1818)