The Romantic Age By Dr Carter Augustan Romantic

The Romantic Age By Dr. Carter

Augustan & Romantic Ages Glorious Revolution Classical French Revolution Medieval Civilization Society Nature Individual Stability Reason Change Emotion “High” culture Natural “Folk” culture Supernatural

Are You a Romantic Poet? A Romantic poet typically has many of the following: Middle- or working-class roots Childhood trauma Liberal political views Eating disorder Drug or alcohol abuse Short life

Pre-Romantics Robert Burns William Blake

Robert Burns Scottish poet Scots dialect Working-class poet “homely” topics Apostrophe “complicated” personal life

William Blake Family Dissenters Originally to be a minister Mystic Dabbler in cults “I must create a system or be enslaved by another man’s. ” Poet and Painter

William Blake (cont. ) Eccentric “Contradiction is friendship. ” Arrested for sedition Always poor Engraved, printed, and painted books Theory of spiritual development Salvation through imagination Unique moral compass

Romantics William Wordsworth Samuel Taylor Coleridge

William Wordsworth Youthful enthusiasm for French Revolution Lake District poet Friends with Samuel Taylor Coleridge Government investigation Save the world through poetry Lyrical Ballads Poet laureate

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Orphan College career poet laureate Robert Southey joined army Laudanum addict Literary critic Philosopher Theory of the imagination Plagiarist

Intermission

Lyrical Ballads (~1800) Collaboration between Wordsworth & Coleridge Natural & Supernatural Ridiculed by critics Wordsworth’s work blank verse “the language of men” introspective

Late Romantics Percy Shelley Lord Byron John Keats

Percy Bysshe Shelley Strong liberal views Complicated personal life William Godwin Mary Wollstonecraft Mary Godwin Friend of Byron Possible suicide

George Gordon, Lord Byron Born to the aristocracy Childhood trauma Disabled athlete Good-looking celebrity Exciting adventure poems Serious work: Byronic hero & satire A public rather than a private poet Died fighting for Greek independence from Turkey

John Keats Born to working-class stable-owners Studied medicine Nursed brother through tuberculosis Contracted tuberculosis Died age 25 Wrote poetry for four years Writes about life and art

Jane Austen OK, not a Romantic poet But a very important writer Made writing a respectable and profitable career for a woman Twice engaged, never married Wrote the “novel of manners, ” actually the novel of self-awareness