The first generation of Romantic poets marked the style and subject shift away from neoclassicism. The most notable first generation poets are Samuel Coleridge (1772-1834), William Blake (1757-1827), and William Wordsworth (1770-1850). These poets are famed as the “Lakes Poets” because they did a lot of writing in the Lakes District of England. When comparing their work and ideals to the next generation, they characterized as the “Lake School”. Less notable writers and poets of the time include Charles Lamb (1775-1834), Jane Austen (1775-1817), and Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832).
First generation poetry rarely included satire or the simple essence of objects, events, and people. Rather, these romantics focused on particular aspects about objects, events, and people. The first generation of Romantic poets embraced the common people and common language. These poets also shifted the style of poetry. This is in opposition to aristocracy. For example, Alexander Pope’s “Rape of the Lock” (1712) is not about the common people, but aristocracy rather, and these poets wrote about in opposition to those ideas.
Wordsworth
Wordsworth is considered the poet of nature and humanity. He had a remarkable insight into nature itself and the nature of Man, presenting the problems within each. Wordsworth highlighted the best qualities of lyrical ballads. Wordsworth was concerned about the elitism of earlier poets, who used highbrow language and subject matter that was not particularly accessible or relevant for the ordinary people. He said, “The reader will find that personifications of abstract ideas that rarely occur…to elevate the style and rise above prose…there will also be found in these volumes little of what is usually called poetic diction…to bring my language near to the language of men, and further…from what is supposed by many people to be the proper object of poetry.” Likewise, the ordinary person likely would not have been able to afford to easily access to poetry and books. Wordsworth maintained that poetry should be composed in “the language really spoken by men” as stated in his preface to Lyrical Ballads (1802). Wordsworth’s particular concerns and style were be of interest to Keats.
fjgjkjhk
fjfj
Coleridge
Coleridge was concerned with the imagination and was the least threatening of the Romantic poets. He had a way of making the supernatural and strange magic come to life, but also had a remarkable way of touching upon intimacy, family, and circumstances in his work. Coleridge’s “Kubla Kahn” (1816) presents a different characterization of the poet. His narrator states, “I would build that dome in air.” This shows the narrator’s desire to combine his imagination with his words to make the poem. Coleridge distinguished the imagination between primary and secondary imagination. The primary imagination is the “Living Power and prime Agent of all human perception…an internal act of creation.” More simply, how the mind perceives and understands situations. The secondary imagination is an echo of this: the way our minds reconstruct situations in relation to our understanding of our world. Keats places a heavy emphasis on imagination in his theory of “Negative Capability” and within his own poetry.
Blake
Blake had radical political views which he frequently expressed in his work. He expressed his concerns about the monarchy and the church alike, and how they did not consider the ordinary people. His poem ‘London’ (1794) draws attention to the suffering of chimney-sweeps, soldiers and prostitutes. It was around this time, and as an escape from life’s harsh realities, that poetry began to see more of a shift to emphasize imagination.
ksjljf
khaki
hah
hkhk
jjdjdj\
fhfkhdhf
sjsjfj
Resources
“First Generation Of Romantic Poets English Literature Essay.” UKEssays. ukessays.com, November 2018. <https://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-literature/first-generation-of-romantic-poets-english-literature-essay.php?vref=1>.
Stafford, Fiona. Reading Romantic Poetry, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucb/detail.action?docID=871504.
Watson, J.R. (1992). English Poetry of the Romantic Period 1789-1830 (2nd ed.). Routledge. https://doi-org.colorado.idm.oclc.org/10.4324/9781315844831.