romanticism
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Romanticism  1798-1832 (37)

 Romanticism—Freely imaginative idealizing fiction

 18th Cent                                                           Romanaticism

 tradition                                                                experiment

society                                                                   individual

urban                                                                     rural

artificial                                                                  natural

reason                                                                   emotion

public                                                                     private

logical, scientific                                                  mysterious, supernatural

aristocratic                                                            common

cultivated                                                              primitive

conformist                                                             rebel

constrained                                                           spontaneous

formal diction                                                        natural diction

restriction                                                              freedom

 

 
 

The Poets
 

William Wordsworth

Wordsworth, along with Coleridge, is a "first generation" romantic.  He went to France to support the French Revolution, where he met and began a relationship with a lady.  He fathered a child by her, but when the Reign of Terror began, he left France, his mistress, and his child, never to return.  At this point, he moved back to the Lake District, living in a small house with his sister, Dorothy.  He did eventually marry and had three children.  All his family (including Dorothy) lived in the same house for the remainder of his life. 

I WANDERED lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
 A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
 
 

Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  Coleridge, along with Wordsworth, published Lyrical Ballads, which is credited with beginning Romanticism.  Coleridge moved to the Lake District to be close to his collaborator, where he fell in love with Wordsworth's sister-in-law.  She, however, rejected him.  Perhaps from the rejection, or perhaps from his suffering with rheumatism, he began using the only over-the-counter drug available to him--opium.  His resulting addiction made a profound impact on his work.

Dove Cottage

  

  The Lake District