Key Characteristics of Romanticism in Literature- Romantic Era

The Romantic period was one of major social change in England, due to depopulation of the countryside and rapid development of overcrowded industrial cities that took place roughly between 1798 and 1837.

Some scholars claim that it began as early as 1789 with “Songs of Innocence” by William Blake. In terms of its ending, some believe it ended with the start of the Victorian Era in 1837, although some say it died off by 1830. For the purpose of this essay, the accord is that the period began in 1798 and ended in 1837.

Romanticism was a legendary movement that highlighted nature and the rank of emotion and creative liberty. We can say that authors of this age were protesting against the attempt to explain the world and human nature through science and the POV of the Industrial Revolution. In Romanticism, emotion is much more powerful than rational thought.

Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems is a collection of poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, first published in 1798 and generally considered to have marked the beginning of the English Romantic movement in literature.

 

writing from this period has several of the key characteristics.

Ø  Glorification of Nature

Ø  Acceptance of Emotions

Ø  Creativity and Imagination

Ø  Emphasis on Aesthetic Beauty

Ø  Spiritual and Supernatural Elements

Ø  Sensory Descriptions

Major Writers of Romantic Era

The most important Romantic poets can be classified into three group:

 The Pre Romantic: Thomas Grey; William Cowper; William Blake; Robert Burns

The first generation: Coleridge, Wordsworth. Robert Southey

The second generation: Shelley, Byron and Keats

Few Best Poems by English Romantic Poets

1.     William Blake, ‘The Tyger’

2.     William Wordsworth, ‘My heart leaps up’.

3.     William Wordsworth, ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’.

4.     William Wordsworth, ‘Daffodils’.

5.     Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ‘Frost at Midnight’.

6.     Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’.

7.     Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ‘Kubla Khan’.

8.     Percy Shelley, ‘To a Skylark’.

9.     Percy Shelley, ‘Ozymandias’.

10.  John Keats, ‘Ode to a Nightingale’.

11.  John Keats, ‘To Autumn’.

12.  Lord Byron, ‘Darkness’.


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