Romantic Poets as Social and Political

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Romantic Poets as Social and Political

When the background of the Romantic era is looked at, it can be seen that there were changes in thought and attitudes after 1780 that are closely linked with both the political and social attitudes of the time. We will be discussing how these changes were reflected in the works of the poets. Poets of all era’s have tended to write about what was happening in their own societies at the time. The word political seems to imply that things stand still, that the poets of the time wrote from the same stance all their lives, never changing their views, however, Wordsworth who at one time dallied with the radicals, ended up campaigning for Tory politicians. For the purpose of this essay then, political and social will be taken to mean having an interest in the social democracy, freedom of thought and the surfacing moral conscience of the time.

One of the key political changes of the time was a move to a democratic structure of society. This was fuelled by the American Revolution in 1776 and the French revolution in 1789. It was not only that England came under the influence of foreign revolutionary ideas there was also the rapid growth in population, urbanisation and periodic famines, social misery was enough to breed discontent and revolt. There was also a mixture of fear, misgivings and a growing social conscience among the governing classes. The romantic era can be thought of as indicative of an age of crisis, even before 1789, it was believed that the ancient regime seemed ready to collapse (Harris 1969)

Shelley gives us an idea of what is happening in the period leading up to the parliamentary reforms of the 1820’s in his poem England in 1819 he lists the flaws in England’s social fab...

... middle of paper ...

... stance of varying degrees, it would seem that we would have to concur with Abrams that the romantic poets were centrally political and social.

Bibliography:

Harris R.W (1969) Romanticism and The Social Order 1780-1830, Blandford Press Ltd, London.

Blake W. (no date) “London” cited in Clark r. and Healy T. (1997) The Arnold Anthology of British and Irish Literature in English, Arnold, London.

Romantic Chronology (2000), 1810-1820, available on-line Http//:English//ucsb.edu:591/rchrono/fmpro accessed 10th March 2001.

Shelley. P.B (1819) England 1819, available on line Http//www.Bartleby.com/101, accessed 10th March 2001

Sparknote. (no date), available on-line, www. Sparknote.com accessed 10th March 2001.

Wordsworth W. (1802) London 1802, cited in Hutchinson T. (1895) The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

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