Abstract on Romanticism
Industrialisation in England changed the whole phase of the land. It resulted in the migration of villagers to towns and cities. The poor condition of the workers and the pollution of the new environment prompted the poets of the age to rediscover the beauty and value of Nature. Jean Jacques Rousseau''s message about the superiority of Nature over new civilization inspired all the European poets. William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylolr Coleridge were the first poets who taught emotionalism and introspection through their ''Lyrical Ballads''. However, Coleridge earned name in his ''Rime of the
Ancient Mariner''. Wordsworth and Coleridge differed in interpreting Romanticism. Coleridge believed in supernaturaism and Wordsworth in reality. Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley and John Keats belonged to the ''second Generation'' of Romantic poets. Byron,
influenced by the 18th century satirists, depicted hypocrisy of the so-called high society. Percy Bysshe Shelley, being an aristocrat, embraced atheism and free thinking. His ''Ode To The West Wind'' is considered a homage to pantheism. Mary Shelley, P.B. Shelley''s wife, wrote science fictioin. She was influenced by Alessandra Volta''s invention and Luigi Galvani''s experiments with dead frogs to animate the stolen human parts from different corpses with ''electricity''. John Keats was influenced by the ancient stones of the Parthenon. He celebrates ancient Greece and Classical art in his poems. His ''Ode On A Grecian Urn'' is a fine example. Sir Walter Scott''s historical romances inspired some European artists. Jane Austen focussed on practical social issues in her novels. William Blake, though his visionary work is much different from that of the others, is generally included among English Romanticists.