1. When was it?

c.1785-c.1830

2. Who was writing?

3. History

The Enlightenment had brought about great social transformation in England, with endeavours for a fairer social model and an embracing of scientific, industrial and philosophical order. Such feelings were not only in England: a want for better conditions led to revolutions in France and America. 
The fallout from the former transformed Europe. Napoleon installed himself as emperor and duly attempted to restructure Western Europe, taking land and reducing Spanish influence so much that the Spanish Empire in Latin America crumbled. However, nationalism and anti-French sentiment created resistance coalitions, and England was a key player in the Napoleonic Wars. When the coalitions won, France’s subsequent weakness led to the creation of the states of Italy and Germany, and set the stage for the dominance of the British Empire.
Many artists and commoners supported the ideals of the French Revolution: revolutionary thought, greater liberty, enhanced rights, and rising artistic importance. The sense of living in extraordinary times was labelled ‘a spirit of the age’, and although disappointed with what followed, the romantic ideals were sown. A feeling that English arts had stalled during the Enlightenment, as science and logic dominated, further fanned the idea of an artist as a revolutionary.
Romanticism was an attempt to fight against the rationalisation of the era by injecting feelings and imagination into its arts. Whilst science could continue with objectivity, art should represent the emotion of the heart.

4. Traits

Romanticism primarily placing emotion over reason, and so concepts such as love, fear, awe, and personal expression became the most obvious characteristics of the genre. As an offshoot of this, most romanticism involves individualism rather than social critiques.
The catalysts for expressing this emotion included previously used ideas, such as love. However, the movement also heavily embraced nature. Whereas factories, cities and trading were becoming fundamental parts of modern life, Romanticism looked at the grandeur of the environment. Furthermore, unlike previous artists, the Romantics were not only interested in their emotions stirred by beauty, but also the sublime. This meant that even the ugly, vast, or over-powering was venerated.
Along with nature, the supernatural was a common side feature of Romantic work, as were the daring tales of Greek and Roman mythology. The Romantic hero was a frequently described individual, and had similarities to the ancient heroes: driven by emotions, keen to seek experience, and not controlled by organisations and authorities, he was viewed as wild and passionate.
For many, the Romantic Period has come to be defined by six poets: William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats. The poets themselves had varying careers and lifestyles: the wild and early deaths of Byron, Shelley and Keats whilst living in Europe counters Wordsworth, who grew old and conservative back in Britain.

5. Timeline

The Lives of the Romantic Poets

6. Examples

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud 
by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed – and gazed – but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude,
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

She Walks in Beauty 
by George Gordon, Lord Byron

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow’d to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair’d the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!