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humble life, and most important of all, the reader cannot but feel that the poet is speaking almost entirely from his own personal observation and experience of life.

The five years (1770-1775) marked by the deaths of Gray and of Goldsmith, the last great representatives of eighteenth century ideals, are also the years of birth of Wordsworth (1770), Scott (1771), Coleridge (1772), Southey (1774), and Lamb (1775), the representative figures in the coming romantic movement. The quarter of a century thus intervening between the two movements is largely a period of literary inactivity. Indeed, the ten years following the death of Goldsmith are among the most unproductive in English literature. Nevertheless it was a period of germination. The favorable reception of the works of the fictitious Ossian in 1762, and of the manuscripts of Chatterton in 1768, and above all, of Percy's Reliques in 1765, was sufficient evidence of a growing tendency in the literary mind to turn back beyond the cold classicism of Pope and his followers, to the color and sentiment of mediæval romance. These publications, however, represent only one phase of the new tendency in literature. Strictly speaking, the true heralds of the nineteenth century movement did not appear until the decade following the death of Goldsmith. In 1784 Cowper (1731-1800) published The Task, while simultaneously Burns (17591796) was preparing for publication his first thin volume of songs and lyrics. Crabbe (1754-1832) and Blake (1757-1827) had, in the previous year (1783), given to the world their earliest productions in verse. productions of Cowper and Burns deal almost entirely with the simple incidents of common life, and, as neither poet aimed primarily to please the world of letters, their poems are, accordingly, the simple expression of their own natural feelings and emotions. The personality of the writer in both cases, becomes, for the first time in the literature of the century, an important element in the poet's work. Cowper brings to his treatment of nature personal love, while, at the same time, having come under the influence of the evangelical movement, he makes his verse a medium of expression of his own personal religion. In the songs and lyrics of Burns, on the other hand, passion—an essentially new thing in the literature of the age-is a predominant quality. But side by side with this runs a companion emotion, which plays an important part in nineteenth century thought and action, viz., a new sympathy with humanity, or, to use the words of the common phrase, a recognition of the brotherhood of man. The work of Crabbe was much more popular in his own generation than in our day, and it is certain that the strong realism in his delineation of humble life had much to

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THE ROMANTIC MOVEMENT IN ENGLISH LITERATURE.

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do in shaping the character of much of the poetry of the later school. The simplicity and delicate charm of the simple lyrics of Blake, the visionary engraver, represent, in conclusion, the purely artistic side of the new tendency in literature.

From this imperfect summary it will readily be seen that the poetry of the time was developing certain new characteristics, which may be briefly enumerated as follows:-An increasing interest in mediæval and romantic literature; choice of themes from nature and humble life; the introduction of the personal and lyric element into poetry; the expression of religious fervor, passion, and sympathy for humanity; a more realistic method of depicting life and nature; and, in conclusion, the cultivation and elaboration of the finer artistic qualities of verse.

The publication of the Lyrical Ballads, in 1798, may be said to mark the end of the transition period, and the true beginning of the Romantic movement. The productions of the poets mentioned in the preceding section indicated an increasing tendency to depart from the aims and ideals of the eighteenth century writers. But these poets wrote, for the most part, in obscurity and isolation, and their work was rather an unconscious departure from former ideals than an intentional and systematic condemnation of the principles of eighteenth century poetry; and, as we have seen, individual poets exhibited only single and different phases of the new tendency in literature. It remained for the poets of the Romantic movement, in its maturity, to formulate and combine the qualities which were only incidentals to the transition poets, into a poetic theory, and to lead a conscious reaction against the principles of the former school. Such a conscious and premeditated attack upon these principles was sure to find opposition, especially among the critics and literati themselves; for, though public taste was gradually turning away from the old models, the so-called literary public still clung with tenacity to the established doctrines of the previous age. Hence, as might have been expected, the work of Wordsworth and Coleridge, challenging as it did the accepted theories of poetic art, at first met with opposition from the critical public. In fact, it was not until this generation had passed away and a new generation, whose taste the poets had themselves helped to create, had taken its place, that the true value of the work of Wordsworth and Coleridge in subverting iaise ideals, and in destroying false tastes came to be finally recognized.

The principal phases of the Romantic movement, in its opposition to the eighteenth century aims and ideals, may be said to be represented

almost in their entirety by the three great contemporary poets of the age, Wordsworth, Coleridge and Scott. The work of Wordsworth is, as asserted by himself in the famous preface to the Lyrical Ballads, inspired throughout by a philosophic purpose-viz., to elevate and ennoble life by revealing to us the true laws of our being. His themes are chosen, in the main, from nature and humble life; the emotional is given a prominence above the simple narrative and descriptive elements of his work; and the language of his poems is made, in so far as consistent with poetic requirements, to conform to the language of ordinary life. He is the literary descendant, on the one hand, of Cowper and Crabbe-on the other hand, of Burns. But it is, above all, to the puritan Milton, with his consecration of life's common way, that he owes most in moral grandeur and in purity of style. In Coleridge we find combined the new-born love for medieval ballad literature, associated with medieval mysticism, together with a wonderful power of producing fine musical effects. Some of the qualities the most striking in Coleridge's work, it will be noticed, had already been shadowed forth in the mysticism and delicate charm of the verse of Blake. Scott, in conclusion, represents more than any other poet of his time, the historical and romantic phases of the new movement. In the romantic scenery and legends of his own country, as well as in the picturesque past as depicted in medieval ballad and chronicle, he finds material for the modern poetical romance, in which action, character, description, sentiment, and historical interest constitute the chief charm, rather than philosophical truth or fine musical effect.

The qualities and spheres of activity of all three poets, as well as of minor poets representing other phases of the movement, must necessarily overlap to a certain degree; but enough has, perhaps, been said, to indicate to what extent Wordsworth and his contemporaries represented the revolt against eighteenth century conditions, and to set forth his relation to the different forms and phases of what is commonly known as the Romantic Movement.

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