Enough of Science and of Art:

Close up those barren leaves

Come forth, and bring with you a heart

That watches and receives.

From “The Tables Turned”

William Wordsworth

The Romantic Age1798-1832

Society’s Problems• Caused by the Industrial

Revolution–overcrowding–working conditions–pollution– long work hours– low pay

The Writers

• Longed for the simplicity and purity of the past• offered a new perspective on the

world• focused on nature and the common

man

• The trials and the dreams of the common people• developed out of democratic

idealism• attachment to nature was a

response to the industrial revolution

The Beginning of the Romantic Age

• Wordsworth and Coleridge published the Lyrical Ballads• Established principles that would

dominate British Literature for decades

Nature• Was not a force to be tamed and

analyzed scientifically• was a wild and free force that

could inspire poets to instinctive spiritual understanding–“Come forth into the light of things,

Let Nature be your Teacher”

• Abandoned Classicism and rationalism• condemned the industrial

revolution’s encroachment on the English countryside

Events of the Time• 1770’s the American colonies won

their independence• July 14, 1789 French citizens

stormed the Bastille to release political prisoners / placed limits on Louis XVI / Declaration of the Rights of Man / constitutional monarchy

• France declared war on Britain in 1793 lasting for twenty-two years• Napoleonic Wars 1799-1815 when

France was defeated by the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo

Supporters of the French Revolution

• William Wordsworth• William Godwin–British society would evolve

peacefully /freedom and equality

• Charles James–“How much the greatest event it is

that ever happened in the world”

Supporter of the American Revolution

• Edmund Burke–revolution was bound to grow violent

and mourned that “the age of chivalry is gone…and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever”