The Romantic Age lasted from 1789 to 1832, a period of revolution and social/political upheaval in Europe following the French Revolution. Poets like William Wordsworth expressed hope for change, though the Reign of Terror and ensuing wars dampened optimism. Society industrialized rapidly, creating conflicts between social classes. Romantic literature focused on emotion and imagination rather than reason, as seen in William Blake's symbolic poems from Songs of Innocence and Experience. A few British poets like Blake changed English literature fundamentally by introducing this new Romantic spirit.

1. The Romantic Age
By:
Sistiono Pambudi
Tsasa Yusac Ersanaz
Ahmad Munir
Asri Budiati
Erys Sandra

2. Introduction
• The romantic period lasts about forty years,
from French Revolution in 1789 to the Reform
Act of 1832
• It is also called as “The Age of Revolution” and
the spirit of ‘liberty, equality, and fraternity’ of
French Revolution made it a time of hope and
change.

3. • William Wordsworth in The Prelude wrote
“bliss was it in that dawn to be alive”. It shows
the hope for the future when French politics
changed.
• Reign of Terror began in 1793, the period of
Napoleon followed rapidly, and by the early
1800s most of Europe was at the war against
France.

4. • The poetry of the Romantics is in many ways
poetry of war.
• Society was changing, becoming industrial
rather than agricultural, the new middle class
became powerful and there were a lof of
social and political problems.
• The worst of which was the Peterloo massacre
of 1819, when the soldiers attacked a large
group of protesters.

5. • In literature, Romantic writing is mostly
poetry.
• The poets wanted a revolution too (in poetic
language and in theme which contrasted with
the Augustan age).
• Because of that, there is a statement “Then
the head controlled the heart; now the heart
controlled the head”

6. • In Romantic age, reason and imagination were
dangerous.
• In fact the name Romantic was only given to
the period later, when the spirit of freedom
and hope could be recognized as different.
• In Europe, music and art, politics and
philosophy were all stirred by the Romantic
spirit.
• In Britain, it was limited to a few poets, but
they changed the face of English Literature
FOR EVER.

7. William Blake
• William Blake had a very individual view of the
world and his poetic style and ideas contrast with
the Augustan world.
• His best-known collection of poetry is Songs of
Innocence and Experience (1794).
• Blake’s poems are simple but symbolic and his
later poems are very complex symbolic texts.
• His voice in the early 1790s is the conscience of
the Romantic Age.
• Another poem of Blake is “London”