Those RomanticsIt’s not all hearts and flowers…

Poets used to be the rock stars of their generation: shocking, racy, and vivid. What happened? We usually don’t see them that way, but why?

The Era This movement took place in Europe roughly from 1780 to 1850 following the period of the Enlightenment.What was going on at that time? Oh, the French Revolution, as well as the Industrial Revolution. Basically there was a lot of progress, and a lot of chaos. The Romantics rebelled against the vast industrialization that was going on-they thought it erased the unique aspects of man

What Did the Romantics Like?

Emotions: All about these. Rejected “intellectual chains” of the Enlightenment (with Newton and all that stuff)"Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains,”- Rousseau

Think about the phrase “to romanticize” something. It’s to see the most glorified aspect of that thing right?

Nature: Love this. Especially the idea of the lone man in nature. Nature was seen as wild, scary, supernatural, and therefore beautiful. These poets found a lot of beauty in what many would see as “scary”. Lets go back and look at the picture from before shall we?

The Goal?ESCAPE! Into nature, through imagination or the wild. Expression of individuality. Spontaneity, feelings, and creativity were key. To experience the world through immersion in emotions and feelings.

The Result?We get a lot of artistic experimentation

BUTalso a focus on aesthetics, so still lots of meter,

rhyme, and rhythm to us it sounds stuffy, but this stuff is FULL of

ghosts and scandalous affairs. And TygersLet’s look at some of the rhythm in this poem by

Blake.