Romanticism: Poetry Romanticism was arguably the largest artistic movement of the late 1700s. Its influence was felt across continents and through every artistic discipline into the mid-nineteenth century, and many of its values and beliefs can still be seen in contemporary poetry. It is difficult to pinpoint the exact start of the romantic movement, as its beginnings can be traced to many events of the time: a surge of interest in folklore in the early to mid-nineteenth century with the work of the brothers Grimm, reactions against neoclassicism and the Augustanpoets in England, and political events and uprisings that fostered nationalistic pride. Romantic poets cultivated individualism, reverence for the natural world, idealism, physical and emotional passion, and an interest in the mystic and supernatural. Romantics set themselves in opposition to the order and rationality of classical and neoclassical artistic precepts to embrace freedom and revolution in their art and politics. German romantic poets included Fredrich Schiller and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and British poets such as Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, George Gordon Lord Byron, and John Keatspropelled the English romantic movement. Victor Hugo was a noted French romantic poet as well, and romanticism crossed the Atlantic through the work of American poets like Walt Whitman and Edgar Allan Poe. The romantic era produced many of the stereotypes of poets and poetry that exist to this day (i.e., the poet as a tortured and melancholy visionary). Romantic ideals never died out in poetry, but were largely absorbed into the precepts of many other movements. Traces of romanticism lived on in French symbolism andsurrealism and in the work of prominent poets such asCharles Baudelaire and Rainer Maria Rilke. "A Brief Guide to Romanticism." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, 27 May 2004. Web. 26 Apr. 2016. |
Module OneFor this module you will view the video above on Romanticism. Be sure to take note to of the values and beliefs held by those involved in the movement.
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Module TwoIn this module you will read William Blake's poem "The Chimney Sweeper." After completing the reading, fill out the TP-CASTT chart using the poem.
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Module ThreeAfter examining the painting "The Raft of the Medusa" complete the handout on Romanticism. Use the guide below to help you work through the analysis of the painting.
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