The Romantic poets: context links

Helpful material on:

Biographical background of the Romantic poets

• Songs of Innocence and Experience
  • Timeline
• Frankenstein
  • Mary Shelley
    • The Byron – Shelley circle

Social / political context of Romantic poetry

• Songs of Innocence and Experience
  • Social / political context
    • The spirit of rebellion - politics
    • The spirit of rebellion – society
• Frankenstein
  • Social / political context
    • British responses to the French Revolution
• The world of the Romantics 1770 - 1837
  • Key events
    • Impact of the French Revolution
    • Unrest in Britain 1774 - 1819
  • Making sense of the tangible world
    • Impact of the industrial revolutions
    • Traditional view of the nature of humanity

Religious / philosophical context of Romantic poetry

• Songs of Innocence and Experience
  • Religious / philosophical context
    • Attitudes to man and God in the Age of Reason
    • Blake’s religious world
• The world of the Romantics 1770 - 1837
  • Making sense of the intangible world
    • Determinism and free will
    • Seventeenth and eighteenth century attitudes to childhood
    • Science and the principles of life

Understanding poetry

• Recognising poetic form
  • Historical aspects
    • Pastoral poetry in brief
    • Romantic poetry
  • Stylistic aspects
    • Dramatic monologues
    • The hymn
    • The lyric
    • The ode
• How poetry works
  • Scansion
    • Syllables and stress
    • Metrical feet
    • Regular metre
    • Rhythm

Literary context of Romantic poetry

• Romanticism
  • Romanticism and beauty
    • Romanticism
    • Landscape and the picturesque
  • Romanticism and rebellion
    • Nature and nurture
    • Prometheus myth
    • Creativity and the imagination
    • Wanderings of the outsider
• Songs of Innocence and Experience
  • Literary context
    • The Age of Reason
    • Enlightenment literature
    • Reactions to rationality
• Frankenstein
  • The Romantics – Coleridge, Lamb, Southey, de Quincey
• Aspects of the Gothic
  • Gothic and the medieval revival
  • Gothic and sensation fiction
  • Images of the monster

Further study on Romantic poetry

• Songs of Innocence and Experience
  • Approaching exams and essays
    • Engaging with the text
  • Resources and further reading
    • Websites
    • Books
• Frankenstein
  • Booklist (Context and background)
• Critical approaches to literature
  • Close reading (new criticism)
  • Contextual reading
  • New approaches since the 1970s
• Tips for successful study
  • How to…
    • Plan an essay
    • Approach passage based questions
    • Write a good English exam answer