Lesson video

Hello, everyone.

Thank you very much for joining me, I'm Mr Blackburn and today we're going to be looking at some of the Romantic poets learning who they are and what they wrote about.

Before we start, you'll need a pen and paper, you'll need to turn off notifications and remove anything that might distract you.

You'll need to make sure that you can find somewhere quiet to work if you can.

And once you've done all that, let's start the lesson.

What are we going to be doing today? We're going to start off by looking at what the term Romantic means before looking at a brief history of the Romantic period, then we'll consider some of the important themes Romantics wrote about, and then we'll have a brief biography of some of the most prevalent Romantic writers.

Finally, we'll tie it all together at the end of the lesson, by seeing what you can remember.

Firstly, I want you to think about what a poem from the Romantic era might be about.

You don't have to write this down, you can just think it very loudly.

Did your answer have something to do with love? It probably did.

And that's a common misconception and that's because of the word Romantic, which we probably now associated with things like some Valentine's day.

But if you notice Romantic in the title has a capital R Romantic poem with a capital R.

This means that the poem comes from a period called the Romantic era.

And the Romantic era was a time when a group of poets wrote a lot about things like nature and beauty and the power that nature had over the human soul.

They really appreciated everything around them in the countryside.

They didn't really necessarily write about love or romance, and I'm not sure that you'll find many poems suitable for Valentine's day written by Romantic poets.

So what is a Romantic? Is it option one, Romantic writers only wrote about love or is it option two, Romantic writers wrote about the beauty of nature.

Three, two, one I prefer this one Romantic writers wrote about the beauty of nature.

So we probably need to think about when the Romantics were writing? When were they around? When were they popular? And to put this in some kind of perspective, we're going to go all the way back to a period called the Renaissance, which you may or may not be familiar with.

During the renaissance, which took place between the 14th and 17th century.

There was an explosion of culture, a metaphorical explosion or real one, but art and literature and music and science suddenly became popular again, authors and poets and writers were free to express themselves however they wanted, they could write about anything.

And one of the most important authors from the renaissance was Shakespeare.

After the renaissance came the restoration.

And during the restoration, which happened at the end of the 17th century ideas such as free expression and exploration of science were frowned upon and no longer were people encouraged to explore these artistic and scientific avenues.

People were restrained in what they could write about and that meant that all of the joy of the renaissance was somewhat diminished and then came the Romantic era.

During the Romantic era, which begins in the late 18th century around the same time as the Industrial Revolution was happening.

People once again became free to write about what they wanted to.

A lots of Romantic writing is about the beauty of nature and the way that it contrasts against the cities, machinery and pollution of the Industrial Revolution.

Contrast means one thing being very different to something else.

And the Romantics were really concerned with the beauty of nature and the outdoors as compared to the dirt and the pollution they saw in the cities as countries became more and more industrialised.

Here are five statements there are three of them which are true.

I'll read them out to you and then explain what I want you to do.

The Romantics only wrote about love.

The renaissance was a cultural explosion.

The Romantics were interested in the contrast between nature and the Industrial Revolution.

Romantic writers were not allowed to write about their feelings and the restoration became before the Romantic era.

Three of these statements are true I want you to decide which three.

Pause the video and then write down the three you think are true on your piece of paper.

Once you've done that, come back and we'll see if you're correct.

And these are the three statements which are true.

The renaissance was a cultural explosion.

The Romantics were interested in the contrast between nature and the Industrial Revolution and the restoration came before the Romantic era.

Well done if you got these right, if you didn't do take a minute just to jot down the correct answers before we carry on.

What did the Romantics write about them? We know that during the restoration, people were restrained in what they could write about and that the Romantic period brought new freedoms to writers to express themselves in different ways.

The Romantics wrote mostly about the world around them and their feelings towards it, which are both very small things, but very big things at the same time.

Imagine trying to collate everybody's feelings towards the world.

So what we do with Romantic writers and poets is we break down their writing into five general things.

The first is about the power of imagination.

The second is about revolution and change in the world.

So at the time the Romantics were writing, there was lots of change and lots of revolution happening.

I've already spoken about the Industrial Revolution and the way that cities were changing as more factories are introduced.

But also when Romantics are writing, there was a revolution going on in France, as French people were overthrowing their Royal family.

There was a revolution happening in America.

So these massive changes going on in the world really influenced what Romantics wrote about.

Romantic writers also wrote about people who were oppressed somehow.

And we're going to look at the word oppression in a minute.

The fourth thing that they often wrote about is nature and the natural world, but unlike many writers who came before them, they didn't write about this in the context of God, they didn't say that God had created all of this beauty in nature.

Instead they thought nature was its own force.

And the fifth thing which Romantics often wrote about is children and the way that children are innocent and pure and angelic, okay.

I said we're going to look at the word oppression this is what it means, cruel or unfair treatment of people by those in power.

And if you think about all of the revolutions that are happening, lots of them happened because people were being oppressed.

So here's how to use oppression in a sentence.

The rich treating the poor badly is a form of oppression.

Although oppression has happened for centuries, it's not a good thing.

The oppression of a group of people often leads to revolution.

What I want you to do is take a second to memorise that definition, cruel or unfair treatment of people by those in power.

And then I want you fill in the missing words you can write this down if you want or you can just think them incredibly loudly.

And the missing words were cruel or unfair treatment of people by those in power.

Freedom from oppression then is one of the big things that Romantics wrote about.

And they often use their writing as a form of protest or criticism against things they saw is damaging humans and damaging society.

So some examples of that include the rise of machinery and pollution and technology in the world, which was damaging the nature.

And you can see in this picture a representation of what the Industrial Revolution was like, look at all of these people and look at all of these massive machines.

It can't have been pleasant to work in that kind of environment.

Another form of oppression, which Romantics probably would have written about is about the way that workers were being oppressed and being forced to live in poverty by those who were in charge of them.

And lots of Romantics were often very critical of the slave trade that was happening, which of course is probably the most widely known form of oppression.

We've reached the checkpoint in the lesson and I want you to tell me what the Romantics wrote about.

There are three questions, and I want you to finish the sentences by either filling in the missing word or continuing the sentences to make sure they make grammatical sense.

You can either check the notes you've made so far, or look back in this lesson to find the answers, pause the video, complete the sentences and come back when you're finished.

Now you might think this is all very well Mr Blackburn, well I know when the Romantic period was, and I know what they wrote about, but who were some of these Romantic poets? Well, I'm really glad you asked because I'm going to introduce you to three of the most important Romantic writers.

The first is William Wordsworth, and he was one of the original Romantic writers.

So there were two generations of Romantic writers, William Wordsworth was in the original generation.

In fact, he's thought to be one of the first Romantic poets.

And he published a book along with someone called Samuel Taylor Coleridge called Lyrical Ballads, which contained poems about his thoughts in the world.

And he was a really big fan of the Lake District, which features in a lot of his poetry and in fact, he even wrote a guide to the Lake District.

He's a second generation Romantic poet, John Keats.

Now an interesting fact about Keats is that his poetry really wasn't very popular when he was alive.

And it really wasn't until after he died, that people started really enjoying him, which is unfortunate for him, I guess, cause he didn't get to make a lot of money off of it.

But his writing like Wordsworth is about the joys of nature and Keats uses lots of natural imagery.

He talks about things like fruit and flowers and the way that everything is full of life in nature and that's really what Keats is known for.

The third Romantic poet I'm going to introduce you to is Charlotte Smith and Smith helped to make a form of poetry called a sonnet, very popular in the Romantic era.

And she also helped to define the conventions the rules of what we now know as Gothic literature.

So if you've ever read anything like Jekyll and Hyde or Frankenstein, they are Gothic novels.

And Charlotte Smith helped to define what made it Gothic novel.

Unlike Keats and Wordsworth, lots of Charlotte Smith's writing was filled with sadness.

She was a very unhappy lady and that's what her sonnets convey.

Knowing what you know and reading your notes I want you to make a copy of this table for yourself and in it I want you to fill information about each of those poets.

I've done William Wordsworth for you.

His name is William Wordsworth.

He is an original Romantic writer and he loved the Lake District.

The next poet, I've not filled in the name of, but he was a second something Romantic writer and people didn't like his poems when he was alive.

And finally Charlotte Smith.

And you need to fill in all of the information about her, pause the video, fill in the table and when you think you're done, come back to check your answers.

So this is what you should have filled your table in with.

The second poet was called John Keats.

He was a second generation Romantic writer.

Charlotte Smith helped make sonnets popular and her writing was often sad.

And as promised, now it's time to check what you know, what can you tell me about poetry? Here are three questions I want you to answer them in full sentences on your piece of paper Think about what Romantics often wrote about.

Think about what Romantics criticised and think about which place in England William Wordsworth was particularly fond of.

If you don't know how to start here is some sentence starters, Romantic writing was often about the oppression is the act of Romantic writers criticised the oppression of Wordsworth a Romantic poet was particularly fond of finish these sentences to make sure they make grammatical sense.

Pause the video and when you're finished, come back to finish the lesson.

And your answers might look something like this Romantic writing was often about the beauty of nature.

Romantic writers criticised the oppression of the poor during the Industrial Revolution.

Wordsworth a Romantic poet was particularly fond of the Lake District.

Your answers might look different to mine and that's entirely okay, but I want you to make sure that you have the information from my answers in yours, because these are what I think are the most important aspects of Romantic poetry.

Great work today everyone well done.

We've learnt the basics of the Romantic period and you've learnt all about three of the most important Romantic poets.

Make sure you complete the quiz just to prove how much you know, and well done for all of your hard work today.

Goodbye.