English Romantic Period

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The English Romantic period (1785-1832) was a complex movement that expressed dissatisfaction with the current society, explored the human condition, celebrated nature, and greatly encouraged experimentation and creativity in the arts. This period emphasized emotions over thoughts and reason and highly valued individualism. Romantic writers of the age were “aware of a pervasive intellectual and imaginative climate, which some called ‘the spirit of the age.’ This spirit was linked to both the politics of the French Revolution and religious apocalypticism” (“The Romantic Period”).
Because the era before Romanticism weakened the religious stronghold on society, Romantics were not very concerned with piety, but rather were interested in experimentation with religion in an esthetical manner. Many artists, writers and visual artists alike, used religious imagery and themes in their works, but did not necessarily consider their works to have Christian or religious connotations. As with the era before it, people of the Romantic period expressed doubt in a higher deity. They questioned the Church’s teachings and sought more scientific answers to the workings of the world (Brians).
The Romantics “traversed the dark side of existence. They were intrigued with the grotesque, the malignant, the horrific, and the fearful” of both nature and the human mind. They believed life could not be beautiful without death because “all beauty is fleeting and eventually withers away” (“Romanticism: Imagining Freedom”). It is from this approach that the majority of English Romantic poet William Blake’s works of art stem. “The Tyger,” one of Blake’s most famous and most debated poems, can be interpreted in various ways, but greatly relates to this doubt in ...

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Evans, Robert C. “Literary Contexts In Poetry: William Blake’s “The Tyger.” Literary Contexts in Poetry: William Blake’s ‘Tyger’ (2006): 1. Literary Reference Center. Web. 13 Nov. 2013
Potter, Polyxeni. “A Flea Has Smaller Fleas That On Him Prey; And These Have Smaller Still
To Bite ‘Em, And So Proceed Ad Infinitum.” Emerging Infectious Diseases 16.3 (2010): 583-584. EBSCOHOST. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
“Romanticism: Imagining Freedom.” Films Media Group. Films On Demand. 2005. Web. 13
Nov. 2013.
"The Romantic Period 1785-1832." Period Introduction Overview. The Norton Anthology of
English Literature. 9th ed. Vol. D. Gen. ed. Stephen Greenblatt. Norton, 2011. Web. 13
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“William Blake.” Academy of American Poets – Biographies Of American Poets (2008): 1.
Literary Reference Center. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.

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