Like many other literary movements, it developed in reaction
to the dominant style of the preceding period.
Imagination became the source of knowledge.
The romantic age is marked by three important historical events:
·
The American revolution (1775-1783)
·
The French revolution(1789-1799)
·
The Napoleonic war(1796-1815)
The beginning of romantic age is marked by the publication
of “lyrical ballads” by words worth and Coleridge. It can be termed as one of
the most fruitful period in English literature.
Romantics opposed classical school. They used simple and
natural diction. Their work shifted from artificial town life to the life in
the woods. It was the age of poetry.
All the poets of the time had different views on all the
subjects unlike neo- classical poets.
Major poets of the time were: Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley
and Keats.
“Poet is a creator like god. Objects are brought to life by
poets” said- Coleridge
“Poetry is the expression of imagination” said- Shelley
Romantic poetry for present-day readers has become almost
synonymous with “nature poetry.” Romantic poems habitually endow the
landscape with human life, passion, and expressiveness. Wordsworth’s aim
was to shatter the lethargy of custom to renew our sense of wonder in the
everyday. Coleridge, by contrast, achieved wonder by the frank violation
of natural laws, impressing upon readers a sense of occult powers and unknown
modes of being. The pervasiveness of nature poetry in the period can be
linked to the idealization of the natural scene as a site where the individual
could find freedom from social laws.
It is also termed as the romantic revival, because all these
characteristics- the liberty of the writer to choose the theme and form of his
literary production, the importance give to imagination and human emotions, and
a broad and catholic outlook on life in all its manifestations in towns,
villages, mountains, rivers, etc. belonged to the literature of the Elizabethan
age which can be called the first romantic age.
The poets of this age were classified into three groups:
1. The lake school- words worth, Coleridge, Southey
2. The scoot group- Cambell, Moore
3. Byron, Shelley, Keats
