An Introduction
to Romanticism
and British Romantic
Poetry
Khalid Qais Abd, M.A.
Timeframe of Romantic Poetry
• First work of Romantic poetry - Lyrical
Ballads by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and
William Wordsworth in 1798
• Traditionally ends with death of Sir
Walter Scott in 1832
• Some consider poetry produced in
Victorian and even Modern eras to be
“Romantic”
Preface to Lyrical Ballads
It is a text of literary criticism
It is considered the Manifesto of Romanticism
It deals with :
The content of poetry
The language of poetry
The features of the poet
The definition of poetry
Content of Poetry
The poet chooses to relate and to describe
incidents and situations from common life
Everything expressed implies the use of
imagination
Interest is added by tracing events and
situations in the way people associate ideas in
a state of excitement.
Low and rustic life is chosen.
Poetry should present ordinary things in an
unusual aspect
The Language of Poetry
The poet should use a selection of
language really used by men.
The language has to be familiar, plain
and simple.
The poet should convey feelings and
notions in simple and unelaborated
expressions
The language of low classes should be
purified from defects and disgusts
The Features of the Poet
He is a man speaking to men
He has a more lively sensibility, enthusiasm
and tenderness than common men
He has got a greater knowledge of human
nature and a more comprehensive soul
He contemplates volitions and passions in the
Universe
He creates passions where he does not find
them
The Definition of Poetry
It is a spontaneous overflow of
powerful feelings
It is originated from emotion
recollected in tranquility
Its ultimate goal is pleasure
It is based on experience
Characteristics of Romantic Poetry
• An emphasis on emotional and imaginative
spontaneity.
• The importance of self-expression and individual
feeling.
• Much of their poetry celebrated the beauty of
nature, or protested the ugliness of the growing
industrialization of the century: the machines,
factories, slum conditions.
Characteristics of Romantic Poetry
• An interest in and concern for
the outcasts of society: tramps,
beggars, obsessive characters and the
poor and disregarded are especially
evident in Romantic poetry
• To them, the poet is a visionary figure.
Characteristics of Romantic Poetry
• A capacity for wonder and
consequently a reverence for the
freshness and innocence of the vision
of childhood.
• Emphasis on the imagination as a
positive and creative faculty.
• An interest in ‘primitive' forms of art.
Themes of Romantic Poetry
Nature
• For the Romantic poets, nature was a balm
to soothe the relentless callousness of an
industrialized world.
• Poets tried to translate scenes of natural
beauty into words so that readers might
know the power of natural forces to shape
thought and feeling.
Faith in Senses and Feelings
• Because the Romantic poetry valued individual
experience, the rationalism previously admired
was replaced by a trust in one’s emotions. The
literature in England prior to this movement
was witty, intellectual, and social. Romanticism
rejects the social ‘us’ and embraces the ‘me’!
Intuitions, feelings, and emotions ruled. Man’s
heart was a more valued guide than his head.
So, another characteristic of Romantic poetry
is this enlightenment by emotion.
Use of simple language
• The Romantics searched for personal
experiences and strove to communicate
their power in meaningful ways. To achieve
this, the Romantic writers employed simple
and direct language. This was another way
to reject the Neoclassical movement that
hoped to emulate the ancient writers in lofty
styles and language.
A New Focus in Poetry
• embraced imagination and naturalness
instead of reason and artifice
• wrote about personal experiences and
emotions, often using simple language.
• saw nature as transformative; focused on
the ways nature and the human mind.
mirrored each other’s creative properties.
Imagination
• The Romantics saw imagination as the link
between mind and nature.
• To them, imaginative experiences were especially
moving, perhaps superior to human reasoning.
• The mysterious forces of Nature inspired them.
• All six of the major Romantic poets had their own
ideas about imagination, but all believed that it
could be stimulated by nature and the mind.
First generation of English
Romantic Poetry - Wordsworth
and Coleridge
• Men meet at Cambridge
• publish Lyrical Ballads in 1798
• seeks to abandon formal
language of 1700’s
• balance between poet’s
influence and “real language”
• balance between commonplace
and supernatural
First generation of English
Romantic Poetry - Wordsworth
and Coleridge
• Apparent contradictions seek to reveal what Wordsworth
calls “the essential passions of the heart” and what Coleridge
calls “our inward nature”
• natural and commonplace, supernatural and romantic all
contribute to basic operation of human mind and emotions
Second generation: Byron,
Shelley, Keats
• All have tragically short
lives
• Byron and Shelley both
aristocrats, well educated,
leave England under
pressure, see themselves as
outcasts
• Byron popular, while Shelley
misunderstood
• Keats produces poetry at 24,
dies at 25
