Romanticism in English Literature: Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Byron
Romanticism
In the last
Thirty years of the 18th century a new sensibility became dominant
Which came to be known in literature as romanticism, claiming the supremacy of
Feelings and emotions. It included elements of nostalgia, emotionalism and
Individualism, and it led to a new way of considering the role of man in the
Universe. There was a growing interest in humble and everyday life and great
Attention was paid to the countryside as a place where there could still be a
Relationship with nature, as opposed to the industrial town.
William
Wordsworth (1770-1850) He was born in Cumberland. He was educated in
Cambridge and in 1790 he went on a walking tour of France. His experience in
Revolutionary France France filled him with enthusiasm for democratic ideals.
He moved to Somerset to be near Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
They produced a
Collection of poems called Lyrical Ballads, which appeared anonymously in 1798.
In 1802 he married Mary Hutchinson and had 5 children. He died in 1850.
Wordsworth was interested in the relationship between the natural world and
Human world. His poetry explain the interaction between man and nature, of the
Influences, insights, emotions and sensations which arise from this contact.
Man exists not outside the natural world, but as an active participant in it.
Nature also means the world of sense perceptions, the task of the poet is to
Guide men to the nature
. The solitary reaper
Written by
Wordsworth, the story tell us about him walking in a Scotland field when he
Sees a woman reaping the field while singing. He doesn´t understand what she is
Saying because he is from England and the woman is speaking in Scottish. In
This poem senses are very important, in particular the sight and the ear
Because he is hearing this beautiful sound that is going to make the vale
Overflow. At the end of the poem Wordsworth says that he is going to love and
Remember this sound for the rest of his life even when he is gone. The sublime:
The beautiful refers to the quality of the object and the sublime refers to the
Feelings that u have when u see the object.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) He
Was born in Devonshire in 1772 and studied in Cambridge, but never graduated.
In 1794 Coleridge met the poet Robert Southey and planned to move to America
And found a Pantisocracy, an ideal community where everyone had equal rights.
In 1798 he moved to Somerset where he became friendly with William Wordsworth.
As Wordsworth, Coleridge was enthusiasm with the French Revolution but he
Turned conservative, horrified by the bloodshed of the called “Terror”. In 1798 he wrote the Lyrical Ballads with
Wordsworth which included his long poem, The rime of the ancient mariner.
The rime of the ancient mariner
This long poem is divided into
Seven parts; each introduced by a short summary of the story. It was composed
Between 1797 and 1798 and was published as the opening of the Lyrical Ballads
In 1798. It tells the story of a mariner who commits the crime of killing an
Albatross. The other members of the ship crew were also punished and died all
From thirst. The atmosphere of the poem is mysterious because of the
Combination of the supernatural and the real. When the mariner kills the
Albatross, he offends the spirit of the rime. In fact the Albatross is linked
To the spiritual world. For Coleridge there are 2 types of imagination: Primary
Imaginations is the living power and prime agent of human perception, it is the
Faculty by which we perceive the world around us. The secondary Immagination is
The poetic vision, the faculty that a poet has to idealize and unify.
Immagination is contrasted with Fancy, which is inferior to it, since it is a
Logical faculty which enables a poet to aggregate and associate metaphors and
Other poetical devices.
The Lyrical Ballads
Is a collection of poems by William
Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, first published in 1798 and generally
Considered to have marked the beginning of the English Romantic movement in
Literature. Most of the poems in the 1798 edition were written by Wordsworth,
With Coleridge contributing only four poems to the collection, including one of
His most famous works “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”.
Genesis of the Lyrical Ballads
During the first years that Wordsworth and Coleridge were neighbours Their conversations turned frequently on the two cardinal points of poetry, the Power of exciting the reader and the power of giving the interest of novelty. They said that a series of poems might be composed of two sorts: one where the Incidents and agents were to be supernatural and through emotions and Situations should be supposed as real, and the other one where subjects were to Be chosen from ordinary life.
Second Generation of Romantic poets
The romantic poets of the first generation gave great importance to nature.
Wordsworth considered nature as a source of joy, inspiration and knowledge. For
Coleridge nature was the representation of God´s will and love. The poets of
The second generation were also attracted to the beauty of nature. For Byron it
Was the companion of his loneliness or the counterpart of his stormy feelings.
Shelley had a passionate devotion to nature, which was a source of enjoyment
And inspiration. Keats thought of natural phenomena as therapeutic to human
Health.
George Gordon Byron
He descended from two aristocratic families
And his poetry and life embodied the romantic spirit. He began to write at
Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 1807 he published Hours of Idleness, a small
Volume of lyric poems. In 1809 he set out on a tour of Spain, Portugal, Greece
Where he took the experiences which gave rise to the first cantos of Childe
Harold´s Pilgrimage. The cantos were so successful that Byron became a literary
And social celebrity. In 1815 Byron married Anabella Milbanke but the marriage
Collapsed, after that he left England and moved to Italy where he finished his
Cantos and then moved to Greece where he died in 1824.