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Romantic Revolution

Romantic Revolution. Poetry in context. The 18th century :. Neo-Classical Age of Reason Thinkers admired all things classical from architecture to literature Logical thinking highly prized . Romanticism a reaction against neo-Classicism

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Romantic Revolution

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  1. RomanticRevolution Poetry in context

  2. The 18th century: • Neo-Classical Age of Reason • Thinkersadmired all thingsclassicalfrom architecture to literature • Logicalthinkinghighlyprized. • Romanticism a reactionagainstneo-Classicism • A greater value given to emotionalside of humanresponses • A place for the imagination

  3. Sir Isaac Newton by Blake

  4. Blake shows the scientistabsorbed in a calculation but: • apparentlyunaware of hisownnaturalnakedness • and of the beauty of the world symbolised by the wonderfully coloured rock uponwhichheissitting

  5. Characteristics of Romanticism: • idealism • celebration • nature-worship • fascination with the mediaeval, the gothic,theforeign, the exotic,(especially oriental) and supernatural • valuing the senses and indulgence in physical passion and sensation for theirownsake • living for the moment

  6. Revolution: • A refusal to follow the oldpathways • Rebellingagainstestablished social and political structures • Periodsees the rise of democracy • 1776 American Revolution, • 1789 French Revolution: 20 yearoldWordsworth,’to be youngwasveryheaven’

  7. Coleridge planned to found a socialistutopia in America but hisdreamsdashed by the Terror in France and followingdictatorship of Napoleon • 1798 NapoleoninvadedSwitzerland, long a symbol of freedom • 1804 Beethoven tears up the dedication to hisEroicasymphony on hearingthatNapoleonhad made himself an emperor.

  8. Wordsworth and Coleridge revolutionary in otherliteraryways: • rejected the self-consciouspoetic diction of former times • ‘Ordinarylanguage of ordinary men’ as a fit medium for poetry • focus uponordinary people as subjects

  9. Second generation: Keats, Shelley and Byron alsorevolutionaries • All grew up under a repressive, reactionary Tory government • Shelley expelledfrom Oxford afterwritingThe Necessity of Atheism (1811) Exiledhimself to Italy • Peterloo Massacre 1819 troopsattacked a gathering of 60,000 in Manchester, Shelley wroteThe Mask of Anarchy:nopublisherdared to printituntilafter the 1832 ReformAct • Afterunsuccessful speeches in Parliamentadvocating social reform, Byron led by hisrevolutionaryprinciples to Greece and hiseventualdeathpreparing to fight to free the birthplace of democracyfrom the Turks • Keats’sexperimentwithmetre seen as a challenge to the social order!

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