History

 Events that greatly influenced romatic era poets:
 * Political History:**
 * American & French Revolutions: both revolutions were geared towards gaining democracy and ending oppressive and totalitarian governments. They both also wanted to slim the gap between the upper class and poor, working class.
 * Industrial Revolution: This was the beginning of the modern era and signaled a shift between hand labor to machinery. With the benefits, there also came many negative consequences. These included child labor, slave wages, lack of workers' rights, and crowded and dirty cities.
 * Many romantic poets wrote to condem the laissez-faire and hands-off attitude of the government that did very little to help workers. They also wanted to capture the independednt spirit of the time and urged people to look within themselves for answers to social and political problems.

**Social History:** Common social beliefs of the time:
 * Desired radical change
 * Favored democracy
 * Concerned with common people and the individual
 * Nature should be untamed
 * Appreciated folk traditions
 * Developed new forms of expression
 * Romanticized about the past
 * Idealistic
 * <span style="color: #e364e3; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Interested in the mystical and supernatural

<span style="color: #9555d8; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">**Religious History:**
 * <span style="color: #9555d8; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Major poets of this time period rejected the conservative nature of Protestant ideals, but still kept many of the Christian principles with a new humanisitic style. [[image:laissez_faire.jpg width="327" height="201" align="right"]]
 * <span style="color: #9555d8; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Focused more on philosophy, meditation, and the power of the supernatural rather than strict religious beliefs.
 * <span style="color: #9555d8; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Believed that no morality, religion, or limiting rules could fit their beliefs and personalities.
 * <span style="color: #9555d8; font-family: Georgia, serif;">The romantic poet chose to create the world any way he pleased to and made the universe a creation of his genuis.
 * <span style="color: #9555d8; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Took on prophecy, but sought a different apocalypse than early Protestants, such as Milton.

<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">**Notable Romantic Era Poets:** <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">
 * <span style="color: #6aba4a; font-family: Georgia, serif;">"First Generation": William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge - used vivid language, pastoral imagery, natural settings, and more conservative.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"> "Second Generation": Lord Byron, Percy Shelly, John Keats- alienated, overwhelmed by society, tortured artists, misunderstood, the "bad boys" of poetry.

Scavenger Hunt Questions:

 * == [|Name one "Second Generation" poet from the Romantic era?] ==
 * == [|What type of beliefs did romantic poets reject?] ==
 * == [|The common people of the time favored what type of government?] ==
 * == [|What three important revolutions occurred during this time period?] ==
 * ==<span style="color: #c9315e; font-family: Georgia, serif;">[|What type of government attitude did romantic poets try to condemn through their writings?] ==
 * ==<span style="color: #c9315e; font-family: Georgia, serif;"> ==