Miss Beln Levican V.

The Industrial Revolution in 1769 and The American war of Independence in 1776, influenced England from a political and economic point of view; instead the French Revolution Influenced the ideology of the British. The feelings caused by these three events are expressed in the Romantic period.

Romanticism comes from the adjective Romantic used in the 17th century with a negative mean to indicate fantastic and unrealistic things. In the 18th century with the revaluation of supernatural it acquires a positive mean in contrast with reason and rationality of the Enlightment.

The main themes of the author in this period are: Individual relation between Man and Nature Imagination as a way to escape from the real World Artist as an original creator, a natural genius free from any neo-classical rules

So the Romantic poets wrote poetry that expresses a feeling of nostalgia through introspection and melancholy.

We usually divided the Romantic poets in three different generations: The Early Romantic poets They are: Thomas Chatterton (1752 1770) Robert Burns (1759 1796) William Blake (1757 1827) The First generation They are: William Wordsworth (1770 1850) Samuel T. Coleridge (1772 1834) The second generation They are: Lord Byron (1788 1824) Percy B. Shelley (1792 1822) John Keats (1795 1821)

In 1798 Wordsworth and Coleridge published The Lyrical Ballads, (manifesto of English Romanticism). In the preface of this opera Wordsworth established the basis of Romanticism; in particular he answered to these questions:

What is poetry? I have said that poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity What is a poet? He is a man speaking to men: a man, it true, endued with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul; a man with his own passions and volitions What is the best language to describe both of them? The principal object was to choose incidents and situations from common life in a selection of language really used by men to throw over them a certain colouring of imagination Low and rustic life was generally chosen, because in that condition, the essential passions of the heart find a better soil and speak a plainer and more emphatic language

He was born in Cocker mouth, near Lake District, and in the peace and the beauty of this country he found inspiration for his poetry. His works are: The Prelude; Poems in two volumes; The excursion. His themes are: Nature as: Countryside opposed to the town Active force Source of feelings

Child: according to Rousseaus ideas he thought that during the childhood we can understand the preciousity of the natural world. He wrote for everybody, but thought that no everybody can be a poet. He was a democratic thinker, because he was convinced that everybody should read poetry to learn how to express feelings. In this poetry we can find both the conception of nature as opposed to the town and as a source of feeling:

A slumber did my spirit seal A slumber did my spirit seal; I had no human fears: She seemed a thing that could not feel The touch of earthly years. No motion has she now, no force; She neither hears nor sees; Rolled round in earth's diurnal course With rocks, and stones, and trees.

The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; For this, for everything, we are out of tune; It moves us not. Great God! Id rather be A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathd horn.

The beginning of the Romantic period of England and its literature usually set in 1798, the year of the first edition of literature work from William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor in which they published a book of their poem called Lyrical Ballads (Copeland, Royster, Wilhelm). Romantic age or Romanticism has nothing to do with the romance or love like its name. Instead, this period allowed people to think freely and usually focused on Individuality and freedom (Melani). That is the reason why we, as the new generation, saw the work of Romantic writers as full of imagination and emotion more than any other periods of British literature. They usually focused and set the value on the individuality of human beings and the search of freedom.

He added to the classical romantic themes the emphasis of the supernatural and the mystery. His most famous works are: Kubla khan; The rime of the ancient mariner. Some kind of scoop about Coleridge: He could only write under the effect of drugs and in particular of opium. So he was ill and suffered a lot.

Kubla khan is probably a result of an opium dream. As a matter of fact its incomplete, because he never finished his dream. This is a piece from the most famous ballad of Coleridge. We can find both the personification of the nature that had a salvation function, and the visionary intent of the author.