15/Literature of XIX century. The Romantic Movement. “Lake Poets”

In English literature great social changes caused by coming Industrial revolution which took place at the end of the 18^th century. Romanticism was a trend in literature which appeared at the same time due to certain fundamental changes in human outlook. The ideology of romanticism was shown its critical attitude to bourgeois reality and capitalist civilization with its new forms and oppression, it was striving for primitive life and return to nature.

The Lake Poets were a group of English poets who all lived in the Lake District of England at the turn of the nineteenth century. As a group, they followed no single "school" of thought or literary practice then known. They were named, only to be uniformly disparaged, by the Edinburgh Review. They are considered part of the Romantic Movement. The three main figures of what has become known as the Lakes School were William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey. Despite their distinctly different styles and philosophies, Coleridge, Southey, and Wordsworth are all considered Romantic poets. The connection of the Lake Poets to Romanticism encompassed a love of liberty and radical political convictions. The poets had, to varying degrees, sympathized with the French Revolution, believing that France was Europe's champion of liberty. Immersed in their love and worship of nature, the Lake Poets also believed in the spirit of reform through revolution, while maintaining that the union of the soul with nature was of primary importance.

16/“Lake Poets”: George Gordon Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Robert Burns.

Romanticism was a movement against the progress of bourgeois civilization, which had driven thousands of people to poverty and enslaved their personal freedom. Writers longed to depict strong individuals, endowed with grand and even demonic passions. The romanticists made emotion, and not reason, the chief force of their works. This emotion found its expression chiefly in poetry. Some poets were seized with panic and an irresistible desire to get away from the present. They wished to call back "the good old days", when people worked on "England's green and pleasant land". These poets are called the Passive Romanticists. They spoke for the English farmers and Scottish peasants who were ruined by the Industrial Revolution. They idealized the patriarchal way of life during the Middle Ages, a period that seemed to them harmonious and peaceful. Their motto was "Close to Nature and from Nature to God", because they believed that religion put man at peace with the world. The Lake Poets The poets William Wordsworth (1770-1850), Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), Robert Southey (1774-1843) belonged to that group. They were also called the Lake Poets after the Lake District in the north-west of England where they lived. The Lake District attracted the poets because industry had not yet invaded this part of the country. These poets had similar tastes in art and politics, they founded a literary circle. Its influence was felt on some other writers of the time. The Lake Poets introduced into poetry short forceful words and constructions of everyday speech. They brought sound and colour into verse. They appreciated folklore and national art and insisted that poetry should be linked with folk traditions of a nation. All of them were humanists. Another group of poets distinguished themselves by the revolutionary spirit which they brought into poetry. They tried to look ahead and see the future. They kept an eye on all political events and sympathized with the national liberation movement in all oppressed countries. The outstanding Revolutionary Romanticists were George Gordon Byron, Robert Burns and Percy Bysshe Shelley.

George Byron (1788-1824)

George Gordon Byron, the great romantic poet, has often been called a poet of "world sorrow". In almost all his poetry there is a current of gloom and pessimism. The reason for this gloom and sorrow may be found in the social and political events of his day which influenced him so deeply.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

Percy Bysshe Shelley was the most progressive revolutionary romanticist in English literature. Like Byron, he came of an aristocratic family and like Byron he broke with his class at an early age.

Robert Burns (1759 –1796)

Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language.He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement, and after his death he became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism, and a cultural icon in Scotland and among the Scottish Diaspora around the world.

They represent revolutionary romanticism-unhappy and usually lonely heroes fight for freedom and their fight ends in vain.