History:
The period
which started with the French Revolution or the publication of lyrical ballads
is known as the Romantic Movement; some says “liberalism in literature” where
one can freely express their imagination. Lord Byron called it the age of
oddities. Certainly, I think, that is a good way to look at the British
Romantic Period. Besides Byron, the other primary writers of the time are
William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Sir Walter Scott,
Robert Southey, Charles Lamb, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, John Keats, William
Godwin, Lee Hunt, Jane Austen and many others. The five pillars of romantic
period were Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelly and Keats whose poems always
had spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings with imagination. This was the
period when new waves of dramas, poems, poetic dramas which can be read and
enjoyed by the reader came.
The romantic
age, if we could put it together, we can call it the age of transition. A lot
of political unrest, a lot of radical ideas are being thought about and
expressed, and of course, wars are happening. There's a focus on the foreign,
the exotic, on being frivolous, and, of course, that comes down from the
leadership in England. The poets see this as an opportunity for a new order;
for a new way to express ideas, and certainly, the Romantic period does reflect
those ideas.
Novelists
of the Romantic Age:
The great novelists of the Romantic period are Jane Austen
and Scott, but before them there appeared some novelists who came under the
spell of medievalism and wrote novels of ‘terror’ or the ‘Gothic novels’. The
origin of this type of fiction can be ascribed to Horace Walpole’s “The Castle
of Otranto”. There were a number of imitators of such a type of novel during
the eighteenth century as well as in the Romantic period for example
Frankenstein written by Mary Shelly. Jane Austin’s works like Sense and
Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma or The Great
Expectations by Charles Dickens were the biggest romantic novels from this age.
Theory of
Poetry:
Poetry had the most important change in literature from
common sense to expression of imagination overflowing with imagination in this
period. One can say “Poetry is the thought and the words in which emotion
spontaneously embodies itself”. As for Wordsworth he says “all good poetry is
the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings,” to this statement, however
Wordsworth has added that, “It takes its origin from emotion recollected in
tranquillity”. At first glance, these two are quite opposite to each other, the
one coming on a sudden, and the other deliberately called to memory, but
Wordsworth makes no difference between two and tries to explain one by the
other. For Wordsworth, a poet writes only when he is inspired because only then
his ideas spontaneously flow out of his mind and he creates poetry of high
order. According to Wordsworth, deep emotion is the basic condition of poetry
that can be written on any subject which is of human interest; this stress on
spontaneity is clear disavowal of neo-classical tents. Wordsworth theory of
poetry can hardly be over-estimated or over-praised, thus through the
breathless efforts, Wordsworth gives a new trend to poetry, which was in 18th
century considered as “a hopeless product of intelligence playing upon the
surface of life”. Wordsworth’s definitions of poetry, adds that poets are
unique. He maintains that poetry is more philosophical than any other branch of
knowledge. He likes the poet to a prophet who is endowed with a greater knowledge
of life and nature.
Woman
writers of the Age:
Aphra Ben was the first English woman who earned through her
pen and the most inventive and versatile authors of the restoration age, wrote
poems and 15 successful plays. It was during this period that woman assumed for
the first time, an important place in English literature, the most important
ones were Jane Austin and Anne Radcliffe.
Lyrical Ballads:
Wordsworth’s Preface to the Lyrical Ballads declares the dawn
of English Romantic Movement. Wordsworth and Coleridge, with the publication of
the Lyrical Ballads, break away with the neo-classical tendencies in poetry. As
the reading people are not familiar with his new type of poetry, Wordsworth
puts forward a preface to this book. In this preface, he tells us about the
form and contents of this new type of poetry. Wordsworth, in the beginning,
states the necessity of bringing about a revolution in the realm of poetry as
the Augustan poetry has become cliché. He painfully notices that the Eighteenth
century poets have separated poetry from the grasp of common people. He
resolves to liberate this poetry from the shackles of so- called classical
doctrines. He, in collaboration with his friend Coleridge, begins to write poem
for the people of all classes. Wordsworth thinks that the language of the
Augustan poetry is highly artificial and sophisticated. That is why he suggests
a new language for Romantic poetry. This is why he suggests a new language for
Romantic poetry. This is why he suggests a new language for Romantic poetry.
These attempt chiefly deals with Wordsworth’s views of poetry. T. S. Eliot, in
his The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism, objects to Wordsworth’s view.
Eliot tells that a poet should not imitate the language of a particular class
because he ought to have a language of his own. Eliot’s view gains ground as
Wordsworth in his later poems, fails to use his prescribed language.
Wordsworth rejection of classical doctrines leads to the
creation of a new type of poetry which prefers him emotions to reason. As a
result a group of talented poet’s has emerged in the province of English
poetry. At the same time, he has contributed to the field of literary
criticism. If Blake is considered to be the precursor of romantic poetry, Wordsworth
and Coleridge are the two early exponents of romantic poetry. And it is wise of
Wordsworth to form a ground for this new poetry through the Preface to the
Lyrical Ballads.
Ode:
Ode is a type of lyrical verse. A classic ode is structured
in three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode. Ode may be
defined as “a rimmed lyric, often in form of an address; generally dignified or
exalted verse, directed to a fixed purpose, and dealing progressively with
dignified theme”. In this age Keats made ode famous through his works like “Ode
to a Nightingale" and "Ode on a Grecian Urn”. Ode written by Keats
reached the height of perfection and subjectivity. It was primarily under the
influence of negative capability. He wanted to attain that perfection in
negative capability which Shakespeare had achieved in his dramas.
Wordsworth
and Romanticism: (First generation poet)
Wordsworth's poetry reflects upon the many exciting changes
that occurred in society during his era and upon aspects of his own history. He
lived in the country side, here Wordsworth experienced a time of intense
exploration of the countryside, exploration which provided much of the
inspiration for his poetry for example The Nutting and The Prelude. First he
began to write poetry and read for pleasure. Through his poetry he attempted to
combine the knowledge he gained from books with the emotion and sensitivity to
Nature he gained from his early life. Wordsworth lived in an exciting era for
poetry, living through the American War of Independence, the French Revolution
(of which he was at first strong supporter). Early in the 18th century poets
looked to control Nature and sophistically manipulate language, however the
excitement of the political revolutions inspired a poetic revolution.
Keats and
Romanticism: (Second generation poet)
Romantic poets,
because of their theories of literature and life, were drawn to lyrical poetry;
they even developed a new form of ode, often called the romantic meditative
ode. Keats often associated love and
pain both in his life and in his poetry. Keats's imagery ranges among all our
physical sensations: sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell, temperature, weight,
pressure, hunger, thirst, sexuality, and movement. Keats repeatedly combines
different senses in one image. Like all romantics, Keats loves nature and its
varied charms .He has a vivid sense of colour, and he transfigures everything
into beauty .Keats was famous for his odes, "Ode to a Nightingale"
and "Ode on a Grecian Urn”. One can say that the typical movement of the
romantic ode: The poet, unhappy with the real world, escapes or attempts to
escape into the ideal. Disappointed in his mental flight, he returns to the
real world. Usually he returns because human beings cannot live in the ideal or
because he has not found what he was seeking. But the experience changes his
understanding of his situation, of the world.
The brief span of Keats's life fell within, what is known as
the age of Romantic age in English Literature. His poetry is a fine example of
highly romantic poetry; in fact, it touched almost all the aspects of romantic
poetry: love of beauty, love of nature, love of the past, supernaturalism, glow
of emotion, and last but not the least in importance, the revealing power of
imagination.
Finally one can say that the romantic age made man to imagine
with his feelings, thus resulting in making of many poets and authors who gave
many famous works of this genre. Even in modern times we can see many authors
who use their wild imagination to describe their love, nature, dreams, etc.
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