Wordsworth and Coleridge By Donna Whitfield William Wordsworths’ ‘Lyrical Ballads’ published in 1978 and written with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped the launch of the Romantic movement in English literature.The Romantic Movement arose at the end of the 18th century. It was called Romanticism and opposed most of the earlier held views of the century. The forerunners of the romanticists argued that men are naturally good; society makes them bad. If the social world could be changed, all men might be happier. Many re-forms were suggested: better treatment of people in prisons and almshouses; fewer death penalties for minor crimes and an increase in charitable institutions. The romanticists believed all men were brothers and deserve the  treatment that human beings are by nature entitled. Everyman has a right to life, liberty, and equal opportunity. These statements had been emphasised in the American Declaration of Independence. Englishmen hoped this and the French revolution would lead the way for the rest of the world.  Along with democracy and individualism came other ideas. One of these ideas was that the simple, humble life is best.  Another is was that people should live close to nature. Because of this concern for nature and the ‘simple folk’, authors began to take an interest in old legends, folk ballads, antiquities, ruins, noble savages and rustic character. Many writers started to give more play to there senses and to their imagination. Their pictures of nature become livelier and more realistic. They loved to describe rural scenes, graveyards, majestic mountains, and roaring waterfalls. They also liked to write poems and stories of such eerie or supernatural things such as ghosts, haunted castles and mad folk. This meant romanticism grew. The movement cannot be precisely defined. It was a group of ideas, a web of beliefs. Not
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one Romantic writer expressed all these ideas, but each believed enough of them to set them apart from earlier writers. The romanticist was emotional and imaginative. He acted through inspiration and intuition. He believed in democracy, humanity and the possibility of achieving a better world.William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was best known as the ‘poet of nature’He was born on the 7th April 1770 in Cockermouth, in the north of England. He came from a family of landowners and from his earliest days he loved the simplicity and beauty of the region in which he lived.     He attended Cambridge University, where he ...

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