Unit 3. Romantic Age

This unit explores the Romantic Age, a transformative period in English literature characterized by an emphasis on emotion, individualism, and a deep connection with nature. Reacting against the rationalism of the Enlightenment and the constraints of the preceding Neoclassical period, Romantic writers sought to express personal experience, imagination, and the sublime in their works. The era was deeply influenced by political revolutions, particularly the French Revolution, and the rapid changes brought about by industrialization.

Key poets such as William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats, and Lord Byron will be central to this unit. Through close readings of works like Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads—the manifesto of Romanticism—students will engage with themes of nature, rural life, and the glorification of the ordinary. Shelley's Prometheus Unbound and Byron’s Don Juan showcase the rebellious spirit and fascination with the heroic, while Keats’ Odes explore beauty, mortality, and the fleeting nature of life.

The unit also looks at the contributions of Mary Shelley and William Blake, focusing on their use of gothic elements and social critique, which reflect the darker undercurrents of the Romantic imagination.

Core texts include:

• Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads (1798)
• Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind and Prometheus Unbound
• Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale and Ode on a Grecian Urn
• Byron’s Don Juan
• Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience and selections from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

By examining these texts, students will trace how Romanticism challenged existing literary conventions, celebrated individual expression, and grappled with themes of nature, revolution, and the metaphysical. The unit will also explore how these works laid the foundation for subsequent literary movements.