ENGLISH ROMANTICISM

The Lake
Poets
The publication of the Lyrical Ballads by Samuel Taylor
Coleridge and William Wordsworth
=> known as the Lake Poets
The Lyrical Ballads is a collection of poems
by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, first published in 1798 and generally
marked the beginning of the English Romantic
The poets William Wordsworth (1770-1850), Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-
movement in literature
1834), Robert Southey (1774-1843) belonged to that group. They were also called
the Lake Poets after the Lake District in the north-west of England where they
lived.

The embodiment of disillusionment and negative attitudes towards the actual

world.
it was the embodiment of disillusionment in the consequences of the French
Revolution. The atmosphere of reaction over spreading Europe to destroy the
expectation to live in Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.

Under the omnipotence of money, the 19th century bourgeoisie led a snobbish
artificial selfish life. To escape from this state of sickness, the romantics on the one
had, advocated returning to NATURE, to the meadows and mountains, where man
can find himself and his fellow-countrymen, where his soul can be saved from
corruption. On the other hand, the romantics tried to construct dream worlds from
their own imagination as a refuge for their souls. The individual man, as a result,
began to shrink into his self and drown himself in the solitary ego: loneliness
became a disease of the age.
 The embodiment of the revolt against Classicism both in topic and style.

As an approach to literature, Romanticism was the embodiment of the revolt

against Classicism both in topic ad in style. Topically, the great romantic poets
found their inspiration chiefly in the simplicities of everyday life: an ordinary
sunset, a walk over the hills, a cluster of spring flowers, the song of a nightingale, a
cottage girl, etc. Stylistically, the romantics expressed their feelings in everyday
language, easily understood by all.

In general, in Romanticism, Reason gave way to Imagination, Feelings and

Emotions.

Romanticism was no more the age of reason; it was the age of imagination and
emotions.