English Literature Summary, The Romantic Period
The Romantic Period (1798 – 1837)
Started with the Lyrical Ballads and ended when Queen Victoria came to the throne.
It was the product of its socio-economic setting:
- The invention of the steam engine led to 2 industrial revolutions, which transformed Britain:
agricultural -> industrial, rural -> urban.
- The French revolution brought new ideas & change in attitudes, shout for freedom &
rejection of authority are very evident.
Many of the writers were unhappy about what was happening to their homeland and began
to idealise the pre-industrial England.
Poetry: There were 2 generations of Romantic poets.
The first generation gave shape and substance to romantic ideals: William Wordsworth
(1771-1850), Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), Robert Southey (1774-1843).
The second generation developed those ideals and gave them full expression: John Keats
(1795-1821), Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), Lord Byron (1788-1824).
Theatre: Plays were still written, but none were interesting to later generations.
Prose: Wasn’t as influential as poetry. Most important novelists:
1. Jane Austen (1775-1817): lived in the Romantic period but her books are about life in the
18th century. Her stories are about relationships, but they lack the passion that characterises
the Romantic Period.
2. Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832): wrote historical novels about heroes from the past.
3. Mary Shelley (1797-1851): the wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her novel Frankenstein has
all the characteristics of the Romantic Period.
4. Sisters Charlotte (1816-1855) and Emily Brontë (1818-1848): writers after the Romantic
Period, but wrote in the same style.
Characteristics Romantic Period:
1. Focus on the power and grandeur of nature.
2. Superiority of emotion over intellectual thought.
3. Superiority of imagination over logic.
4. Originality was prized and slavish reproduction despised.
5. Interest in history, especially the middle ages because it was before the industrialisation.
6. Fascination with the exotic and unfamiliar.
7. Anti-authoritarian & anti-establishment.
8. Common people possess a form of nobility deriving from their closeness to nature.
9. Children were innocents, uncorrupted by knowledge so closer to nature than adults.
John Keats (1795 – 1821)
La Belle Dame Sans Merci (1819)
Ballad, 12 stanzas of 4 lines, simple language, ABCB, supernatural phenomena.
The subject is ill-fated love, but it’s the man who suffers. It describes how a knight meets a
mysterious woman in a meadow. She’s beautiful and has striking eyes, so the knight adorns
her with flowers and carries her away on his horse. Although he cannot understand her, he is
captivated by her and her songs. What he doesn’t realise is that she’s a fairy. They go to her
grotto where she weeps and he comforts her by kissing her eyes after which he falls asleep.
He then has a nightmare: pallid kings, princesses and warriors scream frightful warnings to
him (underworld). They’ve been eternally enslaved by the merciless fairy, and now the same
is happening to the knight. From that time on, he’ll never be happy.
1
, The poem takes place during autumn. The knight is ill. There’s a double metaphor which
states the knight’s health: lily and rose (both flowers), lily = symbol for death, rose = symbol
for love and health. The 5 senses play a big role. In a normal ballad, the final line of a stanza
is longer, but in this ballad, it’s short, to emphasise.
To Autumn (1819)
Love song, ode to autumn.
Autumn is usually used to reflect a season of decline. However, despite John’s bad health
and his personal problems, he painted a positive picture of autumn. He appeals to the
reader’s senses. His observations are calm instead of emotional.
Fruitfulness (pre-harvest) -> harvest -> dusk & empty fields (post-harvest).
Morning -> afternoon -> evening.
George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788 – 1824)
She Walks in Beauty (1814)
Using imagery, he describes the beauty of a woman he just met. It’s not clear whether it’s a
love poem or an expression of awe at physical perfection. Byron was inspired by his beautiful
widowed cousin Mrs Wilmot. In the poem, he compares her to a (perfect) clear, dark night
with bright stars. In her beauty, she combines the dark and light. He praises her appearance
by a popular belief in the Romantic Period: that outward beauty reflected inner beauty.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 – 1834)
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798)
Part of Lyrical Ballads. It’s an ‘art ballad’: imitates the style of a medieval ballad, but with
elaborations and features. It adds pace to a narrative. Four-line stanzas, but added lines
when necessary. Iambic metre, but doesn’t adhere to it slavishly. Used old language. So,
medieval in its form, but 19th century in its content.
An old sailor meets 3 men, who are on their way to a wedding, and wants to tell 1 of them his
tale. He holds him back first with his hand, then with his eyes. Tale: The ancient mariner’s
(AM) ship is sailing around Cape Horn, but finds itself in icy waters with storms and fog. An
albatross (lucky omen/Christian soul) starts following the ship for food or play. The AM kills
the albatross with no good reason. The crew are indifferent to the act, because ‘the bird had
brought them fog and wind’. When they reach the tropics, they enter an area without wind to
blow the ship along. It was hot and they ran out of water. They blame it on the AM who killed
the ‘lucky’ bird, so they hang its corpse around his neck so he won’t forget what he did. A
ghost ship is spotted approaching, but on it were 2 shapes: Death & Living Death. They’re
playing dice to decide the fate of the crew. Living Death wins and claims the AM as her prize
& Death takes the rest of the crew. The ghost ship disappears, everyone on the ship dies,
except for the AM. Each time a crew member dies, the AM experiences the whish of the
crossbow which killed the albatross (200 times). The dead comrades stare at the AM with
accusing eyes. His nightmare lasts for 7 days and 7 nights. Motionless on the sea, he
watches the movement of the moon, stars and sea serpents. Turning point: instead of
recoiling from these creatures, he blesses them and the albatross fell from his neck into the
sea. Then the wind begins to blow and it rains. The lifeless sailors rise to their feet (still dead)
and sail the ship. It returns to the port from which it sailed, sinks, and the AM is plucked from
the water by a pilot vessel, where he comes face to face with a holy man, who forgives him
his sins, but he must spend the rest of his life travelling the world, telling his story to
everybody, so they may learn from it. Then the wedding guest continues his way to the feast.
He goes on his way ‘a sadder and wiser man’.
2
The Romantic Period (1798 – 1837)
Started with the Lyrical Ballads and ended when Queen Victoria came to the throne.
It was the product of its socio-economic setting:
- The invention of the steam engine led to 2 industrial revolutions, which transformed Britain:
agricultural -> industrial, rural -> urban.
- The French revolution brought new ideas & change in attitudes, shout for freedom &
rejection of authority are very evident.
Many of the writers were unhappy about what was happening to their homeland and began
to idealise the pre-industrial England.
Poetry: There were 2 generations of Romantic poets.
The first generation gave shape and substance to romantic ideals: William Wordsworth
(1771-1850), Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), Robert Southey (1774-1843).
The second generation developed those ideals and gave them full expression: John Keats
(1795-1821), Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), Lord Byron (1788-1824).
Theatre: Plays were still written, but none were interesting to later generations.
Prose: Wasn’t as influential as poetry. Most important novelists:
1. Jane Austen (1775-1817): lived in the Romantic period but her books are about life in the
18th century. Her stories are about relationships, but they lack the passion that characterises
the Romantic Period.
2. Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832): wrote historical novels about heroes from the past.
3. Mary Shelley (1797-1851): the wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her novel Frankenstein has
all the characteristics of the Romantic Period.
4. Sisters Charlotte (1816-1855) and Emily Brontë (1818-1848): writers after the Romantic
Period, but wrote in the same style.
Characteristics Romantic Period:
1. Focus on the power and grandeur of nature.
2. Superiority of emotion over intellectual thought.
3. Superiority of imagination over logic.
4. Originality was prized and slavish reproduction despised.
5. Interest in history, especially the middle ages because it was before the industrialisation.
6. Fascination with the exotic and unfamiliar.
7. Anti-authoritarian & anti-establishment.
8. Common people possess a form of nobility deriving from their closeness to nature.
9. Children were innocents, uncorrupted by knowledge so closer to nature than adults.
John Keats (1795 – 1821)
La Belle Dame Sans Merci (1819)
Ballad, 12 stanzas of 4 lines, simple language, ABCB, supernatural phenomena.
The subject is ill-fated love, but it’s the man who suffers. It describes how a knight meets a
mysterious woman in a meadow. She’s beautiful and has striking eyes, so the knight adorns
her with flowers and carries her away on his horse. Although he cannot understand her, he is
captivated by her and her songs. What he doesn’t realise is that she’s a fairy. They go to her
grotto where she weeps and he comforts her by kissing her eyes after which he falls asleep.
He then has a nightmare: pallid kings, princesses and warriors scream frightful warnings to
him (underworld). They’ve been eternally enslaved by the merciless fairy, and now the same
is happening to the knight. From that time on, he’ll never be happy.
1
, The poem takes place during autumn. The knight is ill. There’s a double metaphor which
states the knight’s health: lily and rose (both flowers), lily = symbol for death, rose = symbol
for love and health. The 5 senses play a big role. In a normal ballad, the final line of a stanza
is longer, but in this ballad, it’s short, to emphasise.
To Autumn (1819)
Love song, ode to autumn.
Autumn is usually used to reflect a season of decline. However, despite John’s bad health
and his personal problems, he painted a positive picture of autumn. He appeals to the
reader’s senses. His observations are calm instead of emotional.
Fruitfulness (pre-harvest) -> harvest -> dusk & empty fields (post-harvest).
Morning -> afternoon -> evening.
George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788 – 1824)
She Walks in Beauty (1814)
Using imagery, he describes the beauty of a woman he just met. It’s not clear whether it’s a
love poem or an expression of awe at physical perfection. Byron was inspired by his beautiful
widowed cousin Mrs Wilmot. In the poem, he compares her to a (perfect) clear, dark night
with bright stars. In her beauty, she combines the dark and light. He praises her appearance
by a popular belief in the Romantic Period: that outward beauty reflected inner beauty.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 – 1834)
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798)
Part of Lyrical Ballads. It’s an ‘art ballad’: imitates the style of a medieval ballad, but with
elaborations and features. It adds pace to a narrative. Four-line stanzas, but added lines
when necessary. Iambic metre, but doesn’t adhere to it slavishly. Used old language. So,
medieval in its form, but 19th century in its content.
An old sailor meets 3 men, who are on their way to a wedding, and wants to tell 1 of them his
tale. He holds him back first with his hand, then with his eyes. Tale: The ancient mariner’s
(AM) ship is sailing around Cape Horn, but finds itself in icy waters with storms and fog. An
albatross (lucky omen/Christian soul) starts following the ship for food or play. The AM kills
the albatross with no good reason. The crew are indifferent to the act, because ‘the bird had
brought them fog and wind’. When they reach the tropics, they enter an area without wind to
blow the ship along. It was hot and they ran out of water. They blame it on the AM who killed
the ‘lucky’ bird, so they hang its corpse around his neck so he won’t forget what he did. A
ghost ship is spotted approaching, but on it were 2 shapes: Death & Living Death. They’re
playing dice to decide the fate of the crew. Living Death wins and claims the AM as her prize
& Death takes the rest of the crew. The ghost ship disappears, everyone on the ship dies,
except for the AM. Each time a crew member dies, the AM experiences the whish of the
crossbow which killed the albatross (200 times). The dead comrades stare at the AM with
accusing eyes. His nightmare lasts for 7 days and 7 nights. Motionless on the sea, he
watches the movement of the moon, stars and sea serpents. Turning point: instead of
recoiling from these creatures, he blesses them and the albatross fell from his neck into the
sea. Then the wind begins to blow and it rains. The lifeless sailors rise to their feet (still dead)
and sail the ship. It returns to the port from which it sailed, sinks, and the AM is plucked from
the water by a pilot vessel, where he comes face to face with a holy man, who forgives him
his sins, but he must spend the rest of his life travelling the world, telling his story to
everybody, so they may learn from it. Then the wedding guest continues his way to the feast.
He goes on his way ‘a sadder and wiser man’.
2
