Romanticism | Romantic Poetry of Early 19th Century

Romanticism - Early 19th Century

Romanticism is a literary movement that came against the 18th century Age of Reason. Romantic poets were against established rules of poetry. They thought that the poems should be written in simple language or the language of common people. For them, imagination is more important than scientific reality. They wrote about nature, village, common people and about mythical characters. For them, the aim of poetry is to please the sense.

Main Romantic Poets

William Wordsworth

He was the poet of nature. He wrote poems about ordinary and common things. He said that the language of poetry should be the same as the language of common people. He praised rural life.

His important works are:

The Lyrical Ballads: This important work gave the signal of the beginning of the Romantic age. It was in fact a joint work of Wordsworth and Coleridge. The publication of the first edition of the Lyrical Ballads came as a shock because it violated many established rules of that time. Its major subjects were common people, farmers, and shepherds. Even the language used was the simple everyday language of common village people. The poems praised nature. They saw God in nature. In Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth said that the subjects of poetry should be incidents and situations from common life and should be written in an ordinary language understood by common people. His poem ‘Tintern Abbey’ was collected in this book. In this poem, the poet visits River Wye and remembers his boyhood days. He thinks that nature is far more superior to the corrupt human society.

London: This poem is a cry for help in the troubles of the world.

Ode on Intimations of Immortality: In this poem, the poet realizes that the childhood period is better than the laborious adult days. This poem also praises nature.

S.T. Coleridge

He wrote about mysterious things. He makes ordinary things seem wonderful. His treatments to supernatural themes and meditative dimensions made him a true Romantic poet.

His major poems are:

Kubla Khan: This poem gives the imaginary description of the castle of Kubla Khan, the emperor of ancient China. The description of the castle produces strange and magical pictures.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: This poem appeared in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads. An old sailor describes some strange misfortunes that happened to the ship. He shot a bird when he was in a ship in the ice of the South pole. A curse fell for this crime, the water supply ended and all the sailors died of thirst. At last, the mariner blesses the creatures of God and the curse is broken. He is saved. The moral of this poem is that crime against nature is a crime against God.

P.B. Shelley

He was a true revolutionary poet because he was against the accepted religious ideas. He saw goodness in the whole of nature, and he wanted all men to be free.

His poems are

Adonais: It is one of his finest poems, is an elegy on the death of John Keats. The poet claims that John Keats lies in heaven while his critics are the fools of the world.

The Cloud: The cloud is personified in this poem.

Prometheus Unbound: It is a poetic drama on the Greek Prometheus myth. It shows the victory of love over hatred and revenge. The poet says that God is selfish, they hide the secret from the world.

The Revolt of Islam: This poem is a cry of impatience at the cruelty of the world.

John Keats

He wrote poems about mythical characters and mythical themes. He died at the age of 25 because of tuberculosis. He thought that the aim of poetry is the appreciation of Beauty. His poems give pleasure to the senses.

Ode on a Grecian Urn: The main theme of this poem is that art escapes from death, time and change. In this poem, the poet claims ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty.’

Ode to a Nightingale: The poet wants to run away with the nightingale but he thinks that imagination is the best medium to escape from this human world.

Endymion: This early poem is based on old ideas: the old gods, the love of moon-goddess for a shepherd, Venus and Adonis. He treats old myths in a strange way.

Lord Byron

He was a revolutionary poet. He went to fight for the freedom of Greece. He satirized many sides of English life and hated all false and insincere ideas. His poems are about adventure, love and rebellion. His major poems are:

Don Juan:  It is an adventurous poem that describes the life of rebellious and moody Don Juan. Don Juan falls in love with the friend of his mother. He has to run away because society can not tolerate this type of love. This poem is the expression of free sexuality.

Childe Harold:  This poem is written in a Spenserian stanza. It is about the story of a man who goes off to travel far and wide because he is disgusted with life’s foolish pleasures.

Difference between 18th Century Age of Reason & Romanticism
18th Century / Age of Reason	Romanticism
* The writers wrote polished heroic poems caring poetic rules. *For them, the reasoning was necessary to find the truth. * They wrote poems about kings, soldiers or courtiers and praised them. * These writers preferred comfortable towns to the wild mountains. * They thought that poetry comes from the mind. * For them, the aim of poetry is to teach.	* The poets wrote simple poems without caring about poetic rules. * For them, imagination was more important than reason. *They wrote poems about shepherds, farmers and common people. * These writers preferred wild mountains and nature to the comfortable towns. * They thought that poetry comes from the heart. * For them, the aim of poetry is to give pleasure.

Also Read

• Historical Survey of English Language & Literature 

• History of Eighteenth-Century English Literature 

• Literature For English Language Development for Secondary Level Education 

• Romanticism | Romantic Poetry of Early 19th Century 

• Twentieth-Century English Literature 

• Victorian Novelists - Later Nineteenth Century Novelists

Victorian Poets

Later Nineteenth Century Poets

Alfred Lord Tennyson

He is one of the most excellent Victorian poets. His works are serious and thoughtful as well as musical. He wrote about nature, God, men and the meaning of life. His poems are often sad and pessimistic. He was worried about modern science and about Darwin’s theory. He experimented with new meters and his stanza’s rhyme plan is often – abba. His poems study myth and mythical characters from a new perspective.

His major poems are

The Lotos Eaters:  This poem is about the soldiers of Ulysses, who on their way to home from the Trojan war, happen to eat the flower of a ‘Lotos’ plant. After eating the plant, the soldiers feel that all the troubles of life, work, war and ambition are meaningless.

The Idylls of the King

This poem is based on Arthurian legend where the love story of Guinevere (Arthur’s wife) and Lancelot is shown.

In Memorium

This is an elegy on the death of his friend who died at the age of 22. Later, the sorrow for the death of his friend changes into an expression of a wider love of God and man.

Robert Browning

He thought that idea was more important than music in poetry. While Tennyson’s poems were pessimistic in tone, his poems are optimistic. He married Elizabeth Barret Browning, a Victorian poetess. He is especially famous for the development of dramatic monologue, a literary composition in which the speakers reveal their own character. His major poems are:

The Ring and the Book

This book is his masterpiece. It is about the events of a 17th-century Italian murder trial. The characters in the poem are studied with psychological depth.

The Pied Pipers of Hamelin

It is about a Piper who gets rid of all the rats of a town called Hamlin by playing his musical pipe. When the mayor of the town does not give him money that he had earlier promised to give, the Piper then plays his pipe and takes all the children of the town and hides them in a cave.

My Last Duchess: This poem also presents the psychology of the rich Duke of Ferrara. He kills his wife when he thinks that she is immoral.

Early Nineteenth-Century Novelists

Jane Austen

Her novels are calm pictures of society. She understood the importance of family in human affairs. Though her two brothers were in navy (army), she paid little attention to the violence of nations. Her novels are novels of manner. She brought the novel of family life to its highest point of perfection. Most of her characters correct their faults from the lesson learnt from life’s hardship. In every of her work, she highlights the need for friendship and respect for a happy family.

Her Major Novels

Sense and Sensibility: It is a novel about two sisters- Elinor and Marianne. Elinor is balanced, reasonable and has too much sense while her sister Marianne possesses too much sensibility. Marianne is too much emotional. These two sisters are betrayed by their lovers. The novel ends with both of them getting married. Elinor gets the man whom she loved dearly. But Marianne marries an old man who helped her when her first lover betrayed her.

Pride and Prejudice: The book focuses on the Bennet family and the search of the Bennet daughters for suitable husbands. The story follows Bennet and her lover, who have to give up their personal pride and prejudice before they enter into a happy marriage.

Mary Shelley

She was the wife of P.B. Shelley. She wrote novels of terror.

Her main novels are

Frankenstein: This book can be considered as the first attempt at science fiction. Frankenstein, a college student, collects bones, builds a human body and then gives life to it. The creature is ugly but good. Everyone hates it for its ugliness, so it leads to a lonely and violent life. This monster demands a female being like him who will become his companion. Frankenstein makes a female monster but immediately destroys it before giving it life. The monster then promises to take revenge. It kills Frankenstein’s brother, friend and wife. Frankenstein goes in search of the monster but dies in the North pole. The monster is the symbol of modern scientific invention.

The Last Man: It is a story of the slow destruction by disease of every member (except one) of the human race.