 Hello dear learners, welcome to today's program. I am Dr. Pallavi Gugoy of Krishna Kanta Handik State Open University. Today we shall take up Unit 13 titled The Romantic Age, Intellectual Context. This is of the course MA English Semester 1. The course is titled English Social and Cultural History. Block 4 Literature Romantic to Modern. So let's get started. Let us first start with a table of contents. I shall be presenting the learning objectives followed by the introduction, a little bit of discussion on the intellectual context followed by the questions to check your progress and the references. The learning objectives after going through this unit the learner will be able to discuss the general tendencies of the Romantic Age, trace the intellectual inspirations that led to the development of Romanticism in English Literature and gain a better idea on this topic. So to introduce you to this particular topic, the Romantic Age began as a reaction to many of the new classical ideas of the preceding age. The beginnings of the English Romantic Age in English Literature may be traced back to the later half of the reign of George III and may be said to have entered with the accession of Queen Victoria to the English throne in 1837. Also, there is a noticeable influence of the French Revolution on the literature of the Romantic Age. For example, the slogan of the French Revolution that is liberty, equality and fraternity came to be asserted within the English society in a manner that tremendously influenced English patriotic zeal. Now, coming to the intellectual context, the American Declaration of Independence and the French Revolution played a key role in developing a sense of nationalism and this appeared to many as symbols of political progress and rise of democracy. When we examine the traits of this particular age, we should take note of the fact that the period may be divided into two phases. First phase, a Romantic fervor characterized by the works of William Wordsworth, S. D. Coleridge and Scar. Second phase characterized by a disillusionment and revolved epitomized in the works of the younger generation of Romantics like Byron, Shelley and Keats. The Romantic Age may be defined as a breakaway from the social and literary convention, a going back so to say to nature while advocating a sense of spontaneous and genuine life and reasserting the right of man to satisfy his impulses and emotions. The fundamental philosophy of Romanticism inculcated a belief that literature must echo all that spontaneous and unaltered in nature and in man and be free to pursue fancy in its own way. The treatment of nature regains unprecedented response from the great Romantic poets as the new race of poets, the observation of nature becomes more mature and intimate. Notably, in the case of William Wordsworth's poetry, nature is amplified and glorified. One of the most convenient ways to understand the characteristics of the Romantic Age is to compare it with those of the preceding New Classical Age. The prevailing Romantic attitude favored innovation over traditionalism in terms of content, form and style of literature. The publication of the Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth in 1798 and the preface to the second edition in 1800 proclaimed Wordsworth's revolutionary aim of denouncing upper class subjects and the poetic diction of the preceding century in favor of materials borrowed from common life in a selection from quote-unquote a common life in quote-unquote a selection of language really used by men. So, this was the common language that was being taken up by the poet. This violated the basic mechanical rule of decorum which asserted that the serious genres of literature should deal only with the momentous action of important characters in an elevated style. In the famous preface, Wordsworth declared that poetry is quote-unquote the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. According to the declaration, poetry is not primarily a mirror of men in action, rather it is an essential component in the poet's own feelings. Quote-unquote, if poetry comes not as naturally as leaves to a tree, Keats wrote, quote-unquote, it had better not come at all. Caller is substituted for new classic rules which is declared as imposed on the poet's imagination that is he conceived that each poet's work like a growing plant evolves according to its own internal principles into its final organic form. So, representative romantic works are in fact poems of feelings filled with meditation which do often are stimulated by natural phenomenon are concerned with general human experiences and problems. With this, we come to the end of this unit. Now, I shall leave you with a few questions, questions to check your progress starting with question number one. When was the Romantic Age considered to have begun? Question number two, what was the famous slogan of the French Revolution? Question number three, what are the two distinct phases of the Romantic Age? Question number four, define the term Romantic Age and question number five, what was the fundamental philosophy of Romanticism? These are a few of the references. I hope you'll refer to the Emmy English SLM of our university where you'll find details about this particular unit. With this, I come to the end of this presentation. Thank you, dear learners.