First Generation Romantics

Brittani Powell Dr. Matthew DeForrest ENG435/ TR 9:30-10:45 March 1, 2010 Individualism: First Generation Romantics The Romantics were known for their use of the unusual and old-fashioned in their poetry because they were in a very unusual and old-fashioned state of mind when writing their poetry. The Romantics were experimental writers and they lived during a very tough time period, and itshowed in their poetry. The Romantic period had the shortest life span of any literary era in the English language. It lasted 43 years, beginning from 1789 to 1832. It started during the French revolution and ended during the parliamentary reforms, which established a foundation for which still exists in modern day Britain. There were six major Romantics, and they were split into two generations. The first generation consisted of William Blake, William Wordsworth, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The second generation consisted of Percy Bysshe, John Keats, and George Gordon, Lord Byron. These poets were considered old-fashionedbecause they were the first to experiment with this style of writing. There was no one before them, so for influence they had to look back to the past for influence. Even when inventing a new style of writing there still has to be some influence. It is very hard to come up your own completely original literary style. They admired the work of Milton and Shakespeare very much. All the first generation romantics felt those two were the best poets and admired their style. Shakespeare and Milton were very old poets and they influenced the Romantics so their poems came off very old-fashioned and out dated. They used very old English that was hard for people to comprehend, making some people feel the writings were unusual. The Romantics were known for their theories on the connection between nature, the mind, and the imagination. The English Romantics accepted the reality of the link between man and nature in the form of the human imagination as the

Bibliography: *Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams.* *The Norton Anthology of English Literature.* New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. Print. The eighth edition of The Norton Anthology of English Literature text comprises six volumes, sold in two sets of three Dickinson, Kate Letitia*. *William Blake 's Anticipation of the Individualistic Revolution.* Philadelphia: R. West, 1978. Print.* This text on William Blake’s Anticipation of the Individualistic Revolution describes Blake’s struggle for individualism