Romanticism

What the unit covers

The page is built around the poets of English Romanticism. William Blake has the most material: several mind maps of The Tyger, plus resources on London, A Poison Tree and The Clod and the Pebble. There are also flashcards on Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, and a deck of Blake critics.

Keats appears through La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Eve of St Agnes, Lamia, To Autumn and Ode to a Nightingale. Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner has mind maps on the Mariner, the Sun, the Moon and the Wedding Guest. Wordsworth brings The Prelude, The Solitary Reaper and the Preface to Lyrical Ballads.

Where to start

1. Begin with the mind map ROMANTICISM IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. or the Romanticism flashcards to get the big picture.
2. Move to one poet. The mind maps William Blake, William WORDSWORTH and John Keats give life and context.
3. Then take a single poem, such as the mind map of La Belle Dame Sans Merci, which covers form, language and themes.

Using quizzes and maps together

Read a mind map first, then test yourself. The Dark Romanticism Quiz, the Blake Critics Mini Quiz! and the quiz on La Belle are useful checks. If a question catches you out, go back to the matching map and redraw the branch from memory.

Flashcards suit quotations and context. Look at the Blake Quotes decks and the revision cards for La Belle Dame Sans Merci. Some resources mention GCSE English Literature and A-level English Literature, so school students can find poem-by-poem material. University students will find slide sets on Keats and Wordsworth, and a note on Letters From France 1790-1796 by Helen Maria Williams.

Where it sits

This unit belongs to the strand Literary Periods and Traditions in Literature. It sits beside other period units, so use it when you need the Romantic poets in particular.

When you've worked through a poet, open a quiz or build a map of your own to see what has stuck.