SAMI ULLAH

13131502-103

SUFYAN SAJID

13131502-082

The Age of Wordsworth

1798-1832

Romantic Movement in England

The age of words worth is the age of the revolution in the history of politics .

And is broadly called the romantic triumph in that of literature.

We have to remember that triumph of romanticism was accompanied by that of naturalism.

The English romantic movement was both a ‘revival’ and a ‘revolt’.

Romantic movement as a revival

It was a revival of interest in old English masters, like:

Chaucer

Spencer

It was a revival of a number of meters which had fallen into disuse during classical era.

Romantic movement as a revolt

It was also a revolt against the artificial poetic diction of the 18th century classics, as well as against their reoccupation with classical rules of literary composition.

It was also a revolt against the domination of reason and intellect in favour of emotion, imagination and inspiration.

Romantic movement

The English romantic movement began in 1798, with the publication of “The Lyrical Ballads”.

The poets of the romantic school were:

Wordsworth

S.T Coleridge

Keats

Shelley

Characteristics of romantic poetry

Various writers have given various definition for the term “romanticism”.

It means the renaissance of wonder.

It also means an addition of strangeness of Beauty.

Subjectivity:

All romantic literature is subjective. As the poet is free to write on any theme, and in any form he likes.

Cont.....

Spontaneity :

Romantic poetry is spontaneous overflow of powerful passions. The romantic poet is gifted with a strong “organic sensibility”. He feels more than there is to feel and sees more than there is to see. Poetry for him is not craft but inspiration.

Love of the supernatural:

He is extraordinarily alive to the wonder, mystery and beauty of the universe. He feels the presence of unseen powers in nature. Supernaturalism is an important element in romantic inspiration.

Cont…..

Melancholy:

Romantic poetry is often pessimistic. A romantic is a dissatisfied individual. He may be dissatisfied with the circumstances of his own life, with his age etc.

Love for Nature:

Romantic poetry carries us away from the suffocating atmosphere of cities into the fresh and invigorating company of the out of door world.

The element of “strangeness added to beauty” is the essence of romanticism.

Cont…..

The democratic note:

The romantic poetry is democratic. They glorify the innocence and simplicity of the common man. They try to see into the heart of man and understand human nature. They find the divine in man. Their heart overflow with sympathy for the poor and the downtrodden.

A revolt against all artificiality:

They use language of the common man for purpose of poetry. According to romantic poets there is no essential difference between the language of poetry and that of prose.

Wordsworth’s life

Born in 1770

English Lake District.

when he was 8, his mother died.

his father died, when William was 13

father was an estate manager

The family lived well

Cont….

He was educated at Hawkeshead School, Lancashire, and at Cambridge.

In 1793, he published “An Evening walk and descriptive sketches”.

He was the first English poet, to interpret nature spiritually.

For this reason, he is variously called the “harbinger of nature”, “high priest of nature”, and the “worshiper of nature”.

His chief originality is to be found in his poetry of nature.

Sailant Features of Wordsworth’s poetry The spiritual conception of Nature:

The poet himself tells us that there were four stages of in the development of his love of the outer world.

Firstly “his love of nature was simply a healthy boy’s delight in freedom and the open air.

The second stage was a period during which the poet loved the sensuous beauty of nature

In the third stage the “dizzy joys” and “aching raptures” of the earlier stage comes to an end with his experience of human sorrow and suffering.

Cont.…

But this stage of “human heartedness” is a transitory one. It is soon followed by the last and most important one state.

The stage of the spiritual and mystical interpretation of Nature.

Pantheism: A belief in the basic “oneness” of all.

The reality is one, only the forms are countless. He felt that behind the external forms of nature there is a living principle called “soul of all the world”.

According to him Nature is the teacher of man.