The Romantic or
Romanticism
Mohammad Destra Banyuaji (J1A016050)
Zulfikar (J1A016052)
ROMANTICISM
Romanticism (also the Romantic era or the Romantic period) was an artistic, literary, musical
and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century, and
in most areas was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1850. Romanticism was
characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of all the
past and nature, preferring the medieval rather than the classical. It was partly a reaction to
the Industrial Revolution, the aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of
Enlightenment, and the scientific rationalization of nature—all components of modernity. It
was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature, but had a major impact
on historiography,education, and the natural sciences. It had a significant and complex effect
on politics, with romantic thinkers
influencing liberalism, radicalism, conservatism, and nationalism.
ROMANTIC LITERATURE IN ENGLISH
Various dates are given for the Romantic period but here the publishing
of William Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads in 1798 is taken as the beginning, and
the crowning of Queen Victoria in 1837 as its end. Romanticism arrived later in
other parts of the English-speaking world, such as America.
The Romantic period was one of major social change in England, because of
the depopulation of the countryside and the rapid development of
overcrowded industrial cities, that took place in the period roughly between
1798 and 1832. The movement of so many people in England was the result of
two forces: the Agricultural Revolution, that involved the enclosure of the
land, drove workers off the land, and the Industrial Revolution which
provided them employment, "in the factories and mills, operated by machines
driven by steam-power". Indeed, Romanticism may be seen in part as a
reaction to the Industrial Revolution, though it was also a revolt against
aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment, as well a
reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature. The French
Revolution was an especially important influence on the political thinking of
many at this time.
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
William Wordsworth (7 April 1770 – 23 April 1850) was a major English Romantic poet who,
with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with
their joint publication Lyrical Ballads (1798).
Wordsworth's magnum opus is generally considered to be The Prelude, a semi-
autobiographical poem of his early years that he revised and expanded a
number of times. It was posthumously titled and published, before which it
was generally known as "the poem to Coleridge". Wordsworth was
Britain's poet laureate from 1843 until his death from pleurisy on 23 April 1850.
Notable Works : Lyrical Ballads Poems in Two Volumes, The Excursion, The
Prelude, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.
THE SOLITARY REAPER
"The Solitary Reaper" is a ballad by English Romantic poet William Wordsworth, and one of
his best-known works. The poem was inspired by his and his sister Dorothy's stay at the village
of Strathyre in the parish of Balquhidder in Scotland in September 1803.
'"The Solitary Reaper is one of Wordsworth's most famous post-Lyrical Ballads lyrics". The
words of the reaper's song are incomprehensible to the speaker, so his attention is free to
focus on the tone, expressive beauty, and the blissful mood it creates in him. The poem
functions to 'praise the beauty of music and its fluid expressive beauty, the "spontaneous
overflow of powerful feelings" that Wordsworth identified at the heart of poetry.' The poet
orders or requests his listeners to behold a young maiden reaping and singing to herself. The
poet says that anyone passing by should either stop or gently pass as not to disturb her.
Behold her, single in the field, Will no one tell me what she sings?—
Yon solitary Highland Lass! Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
Reaping and singing by herself; For old, unhappy, far-off things,
Stop here, or gently pass! And battles long ago:
Alone she cuts and binds the grain, Or is it some more humble lay,
And sings a melancholy strain; Familiar matter of to-day?
O listen! for the Vale profound Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,
Is overflowing with the sound. That has been, and may be again?
No Nightingale did ever chaunt Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang
More welcome notes to weary bands As if her song could have no ending;
Of travellers in some shady haunt, I saw her singing at her work,
Among Arabian sands: And o'er the sickle bending;—
A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard I listened, motionless and still;
In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird, And, as I mounted up the hill,
Breaking the silence of the seas The music in my heart I bore,
Among the farthest Hebrides. Long after it was heard no more.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (21 October 1772 – 25 July 1834) was an English poet,
literary critic, philosopher and theologian who, with his friend William
Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a
member of the Lake Poets. He wrote the poems The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner and Kubla Khan, as well as the major prose work Biographia Literaria.
His critical work, especially on William Shakespeare, was highly influential, and
he helped introduce German idealist philosophy to English-speaking culture.
Coleridge coined many familiar words and phrases, including suspension of
disbelief. He was a major influence on Ralph Waldo Emerson and
American transcendentalism. Notable Works : The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,
Kubla Khan, Christabel
The Rime of Ancient Mariner
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (originally The Rime of the Ancyent
Marinere) is the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, written in 1797–98 and published in 1798 in the first edition
of Lyrical Ballads. Modern editions use a revised version printed in 1817 that
featured a gloss. Along with other poems in Lyrical Ballads, it was a signal shift
to modern poetry and the beginning of British Romantic literature.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner relates the experiences of a sailor who has
returned from a long sea voyage. The mariner stops a man who is on the way
to a wedding ceremony and begins to narrate a story. The wedding-guest's
reaction turns from bemusement to impatience to fear to fascination as the
mariner's story progresses, as can be seen in the language style: Coleridge
uses narrative techniques such as personification and repetition to create a
sense of danger, the supernatural, or serenity, depending on the mood in
different parts of the poem.
The mariner's tale begins with his ship departing on its journey. Despite initial
good fortune, the ship is driven south by a storm and eventually
reaches Antarctic waters. An albatross appears and leads them out of the ice
jam where they are stuck, but even as the albatross is praised by the ship's
crew, the mariner shoots the bird:
• With my cross-bow,
I shot the albatross.
• The crew is angry with the mariner, believing the albatross brought the
south wind that led them out of the Antarctic. However, the sailors change
their minds when the weather becomes warmer and the mist disappears:
• 'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,
That bring the fog and mist.
They soon find that they made a grave mistake in supporting this crime, as it
arouses the wrath of spirits who then pursue the ship "from the land of mist
and snow"; the south wind that had initially led them from the land of ice now
sends the ship into uncharted waters near the equator, where it is becalmed.
Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.
The very deep did rot – Oh Christ!
That ever this should be.
Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs,
Upon the slimy sea.
The sailors change their minds again and blame the mariner for the torment of
their thirst. In anger, the crew forces the mariner to wear the dead albatross
about his neck, perhaps to illustrate the burden he must suffer from killing it,
or perhaps as a sign of regret:
• Ah! Well a-day! What evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the albatross
About my neck was hung.
Eventually, the ship encounters a ghostly hulk. On board are Death (a skeleton) and the
"Night-mare Life-in-Death", a deathly-pale woman, who are playing dice for the souls of
the crew. With a roll of the dice, Death wins the lives of the crew members and Life-in-
Death the life of the mariner, a prize she considers more valuable. Her name is a clue to
the mariner's fate: he will endure a fate worse than death as punishment for his killing of
the albatross.
One by one, all of the crew members die, but the mariner lives on, seeing for seven days
and nights the curse in the eyes of the crew's corpses, whose last expressions remain upon
their faces. Eventually, this stage of the mariner's curse is lifted after he appreciates the
sea creatures swimming in the water. Despite his cursing them as "slimy things" earlier in
the poem, he suddenly sees their true beauty and blesses them ("a spring of love gush'd
from my heart, and I bless'd them unaware"); suddenly, as he manages to pray, the
albatross falls from his neck and his guilt is partially expiated. The bodies of the crew,
possessed by good spirits, rise again and help steer the ship. In a trance, the mariner hears
two spirits discussing his voyage and penance, and learns that the ship is being powered
preternaturally:
• The air is cut away before,
And closes from behind.
Finally the mariner comes in sight of his homeland, but is initially uncertain as
to whether or not he is hallucinating.
• Oh! Dream of joy! Is this indeed
The light-house top I see?
Is this the hill? Is this the kirk?
Is this mine own countree?
We drifted o'er the harbour-bar,
And I with sobs did pray—
O let me be awake, my God!
Or let me sleep alway.
The rotten remains of the ship sink in a whirlpool, leaving only the mariner behind.
A hermit on the mainland had seen the approaching ship and had come to meet it
with a pilot and his boy, in a boat. When they pull him from the water, they think he is
dead, but when he opens his mouth, the pilot has a fit. The hermit prays, and the
mariner picks up the oars to row. The pilot's boy goes crazy and laughs, thinking the
mariner is the devil, and cries, "The Devil knows how to row". As penance for shooting
the albatross, the mariner, driven by guilt, is forced to wander the earth, telling his
story over and over, and teaching a lesson to those he meets:
• He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
After relaying the story, the mariner leaves, and the wedding guest returns home, and
wakes the next morning "a sadder and a wiser man".
The poem received mixed reviews from critics, and Coleridge was once told by the
publisher that most of the book's sales were to sailors who thought it was a naval
songbook. Coleridge made several modifications to the poem over the years. In the
second edition of Lyrical Ballads, published in 1800, he replaced many of the archaic
words.
QUESTION TIME!
1. What do you know about Romanticism? (30)
2. Mention 5 key figures of Romantic Movement in England! (10)
3. Who is William Wordsworth? And mention his notable works! (10)
4. What is “The Solitary Reaper” about? (25)
5. What is “The Rime of Ancient Mariner” about? (25)
THANK YOU!
