Romance literature in theperiod of Romanticism (1798-1832) uses the term in the sameway we used it in the MedievalPeriod:

freely imaginative, idealizing fiction.

The British Romantic Movementwas a reaction against the longperiod, The Age of Reason (1660-1798), which came before it.

In 1798, Wordsworth andColeridge published a book ofpoetry, Lyrical Ballads, whichbegan British Romanticism.

Age of Reason: stressed judgment and

reasonRomantic Period:

stressed imagination and emotionAge of Reason:

stressed society as a wholeRomantic Period:

stressed the individual

Age of Reason:stressed

authority,rules,order

Romantic Period:championed freedom

Key words to remember forRomanticism:

IndividualismImagination

Intuition

(…the 19th century hippies)

Key words to remember forRomanticism:

IndividualismImagination

Intuition

(…the 19th century hippies)

Robert Burns (1759-1796)

Hailed as the national poet ofScotland… “Scotish Bard”Wrote from the mindset andin the language of the commonman…Strong advocate of French Revolution...

William Blake (1757-1827)

Songs of Innocence and Experience..his famous collection of poems..points out his belief in the needfor both childlike innocence andthe wisdom gained from experience

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

“All good poetry is thespontaneous overflow of powerfulfeelings…recollected in tranquility.”• W. in Lyrical Ballads

“…to reveal the romanceinherent in the

commonplace.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge(1772-1834)

“…a reader should come to poetryready to participate with thatwilling suspension of disbeliefwhich is poetic faith.”• C. in Lyrical Ballads“…to handle the bizarre and make incredible-seem common.”

George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824)

“…a little tumult, now and then,is an agreeable sensation…for thegreat object of life is sensation--to feel that we exist, thougheven in pain.”

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

“Human nature is essentially good…and we can improveourselves and our world.”

• his wife Mary wrote the famous gothic romance novel Frankenstein

John Keats (1795-1821) -died at 25 of tuberculosis

“Art is the highest expressionof truth.” “What the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth.”