routledge+history+of+literature+in+english

Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive
(William Wordsworth, The Prelude)
CONTEXTS AND CONDITIONS
The dates of the Romantic period of literature are not precise and the
term ‘romantic’ is itself not widely used until after the period in question.
Conventionally, the period begins in 1798, which saw the publication by
Wordsworth and Coleridge of their Lyrical Ballads, and ends in 1832, a
year which saw the death of Sir Walter Scott and the enactment by
Parliament of the First Reform Bill. These years link literary and political
events. The Romantic period was an era in which a literary revolution
took place alongside social and economic revolutions. In some histories
of literature the Romantic period is called the ‘Age of Revolutions’.
The period was one of rapid change as the nation was transformed
from an agricultural country to an industrial one. The laws of a free
market, developed by the economist Adam Smith in his book Wealth
of Nations (1776), dominated people’s lives. At the same time a shift
in the balance of power took place. Power and wealth were gradually
transferred from the landholding aristocracy to the large-scale employers
of modern industrial communities. An old population of rural farm
labourers became a new class of urban industrial labourers. This new
class came to be called the working class. These workers were
concentrated in cities and the new power of an increasingly large and
restive mass began to make itself felt.
The Industrial Revolution created social change, unrest, and eventually
turbulence. Deep-rooted traditions were rapidly overturned. Within a
short period of time the whole landscape of the country changed. In
the countryside, the open fields and communally worked farms were
‘enclosed’. The enclosure movement improved efficiency and enabled