The Romantic Movement

the historical background



the American

War of Independence (1775–1783),



The French Revolution (1789),



The Battle of Waterloo (1815),



The discovery of Australia

(1770).

Features of mentality



importance & insight of childhood

experience



willingness to explore the less conscious

states & feelings



failure to adopt the conventional behaviour



belief that the poor and uneducated can

offer the society new values, truths, guidance



freedom in expressing emotions, especially

in writing



the role of the poet as seer and prophet

whose mission is not only to entertain, but
also to illuminate



worship of nature

The Lyrical Ballads

1798

a collection of poems by 

William

Wordsworth

and 

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

,

generally considered to have marked the

beginning of the English Romantic

movement in literature. 

Only four poems were written by Coleridge,
but they were very long – for example ‘The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner’.

The authors’ names did not appear on the
cover.

Wordsworth’s sister, Dorothy, greatly
contributed to the creation of poems,
providing much of the imagery, noted down in
her diary.

Content – what was so
new?



the language was the speech of ordinary

people, as opposed to the 18th century poetry,
which they considered priggish, learned and
highly sculpted.



emphasis placed on the way the poor express

their emotions, how they present their reality.



the title –

ballads

– an oral mode of storytelling

used by the common people



focus on simple, uneducated people



return to the original state of nature, in which

people led happier, more innocent lives.

William Wordsworth

(1770-1850)

Was born in the Lake Discrict
and that experience helped to
shape his perception of the
natural world.

Was the

Poet Laureate

from

1843 until his death (not
required to write anything)

Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(1772-1834)

A poet and philosopher + many
things besides

Explored the unconscious
workings of the mind with a
powerful help of opium, to which
he was a life-long addict

Regarded the imagination as the
sovereign creative power

KUBLAI
KHAN

Ancie
nt
Marin
er

Death and
Life-in-
Death