On Major Poets and Masterpieces of English RomanticPeriodChapterI:the background of the rise of English Romantic PeriodThe French Revolution of 1789 (French Revolution) brought hope to the future of human,and it impacted on British Society ,too. The British Industrial Revolution not only created wealth, but also intensifyied the contradiction between labor and capital. The transformation of the social structure and changes in the relationship between people and the traditions, man and nature promoted intellectual differentiation. Then, a group of better educated people felt confused about the society and they were at a loss what to do .In this context, the British Romantic literature rose.It originated in the end of the eighteenth century and became prosperous in the first half of the nineteenth century.ChapterII:the classification of poet in English romantic period2.1 the pioneer of English romantic literatureThe pioneer of romantic literature is poet Robert Burns who lived in late eighteenth century and William Blake. Burns draw nourishment from the folk songs in Scotland, ("Poems, chiefly in Scottish dialcet") is his masterpiece, specializing in Lyric and satire ; Blake's "songs of innocence" and "songs of experience" ,which describe the ideal society order,are creative and fresh,full of originality.2.2 the two schools of British Romantic literatureTwo opposing schools were formed in the formation of the romanticism.They are active romanticism and passive romanticism. Active romanticism is a positive trend of progress.Active romantic poets dare to face up to reality, criticize the social darkness and lead people to look ahead.Passive r omanticism is a reactionary countercurrent negative trend, it takes a negative attitude to escape, against the status quo, cling to the past and leads people to look back.2.2.1 the representatives of Active RomanticismThe emerged poets put forward the British Romantic literature to a climax.The representative poets are Byron, Shelley and Keats,they are active romanticist.Unlike the lake poets, they put more fighting consciousness and politic trends in his works. Shelley (1792 - 1822) is the most concentrated romantic poet and a British Utopian.Inhis poem "Queen Mab" ,filling up with fantasy and allegory, reflects the religious and private ownership of condemnation and change of social desire. The long poem "the revolt of Islam" criticizes the tyranny and bloodshed made by autocratic oppression to people and praiseds the struggle anti feudal made by revolutionary. He also wrote "Cenci family", "Ode to the west wind", "to a Skylark" and "song of freedom" and a large number of poems and dramas, as well as the famous paper "a defence of poetry". Drama "Prometheus Unbounded") is the representative work of Shelley, based on the ancient Greek Rome myth which is about the inevitable fate of the oppressed people and the suffering of the tyrant and predicted that the revolution will surely come. In his poems Shelley expressed opposition to authoritarian tyranny, sang the praises of struggle and prospected ideal social political environment which is filling up with freedom and happiness. Byron (1788-1824) is a famous romantic poet during the first half of nineteenth century. He traveled from place to place so his poems are full of exotic. His representative works "Don Juan" is a search on the capitalist system, leading people to think. Keats (1795 - 1821) was a talented poet, once under the impact of Wordsworth and others. He wrote the famous poem "Ode to a Nightingale" and "Ode on a Grecian Urn", indulging in the pastoral scenery of the ancient world.1:Posey Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)Posey Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) is a poet and politician who is as famous as Byron in the British Romantic Literature. Engels called him "a gifted prophet", Marx called him "a true revolutionary socialist," "daring vanguard". At the age of 19 Shelley wrote "necessity of atheism “and 20 finished “the book to Irish people " and other two political works.All the books aroused big waves in the British at that time. The representative work of Shelley is his drama "Prometheus Unbounded" which made new fiction of the Greek mythology story.He added some symbolic image and changed the end that Prometheus and Zeus compromised to another one that Heracles freed Prometheus and overthrew Zeus’s tyranny. Prometheus is portrayed as a champion of the refuse to be cowed or submit images. Works with mythical form describes the inevitable end the suffering of the people and the tyrant's oppression, predicted that the revolution will come and the final victory; and also a detailed description of the beautiful scene after the victory of the revolution. The whole drama is full of great momentum and quite infectious.Shelley's poems with rich political color are the "Queen Mab" and "the revolt of Islam". In these poems, Shelley exposed and condemned the feudal tyranny and the church's sin, denied the oppression and exploitation of all forms of propaganda, ideaed of freedom and equality, called on the people to struggle. These poems artly reflects the passion, great momentum and the texture of the metal through the force. Shelley is also known to the world because of the lyric poems. His lyric masterpiece are"Ode to the west wind", "cloud" and "Skylark" etc.. These poems developed traditions that Wordsworth created about describing the nature, often reflects thepoet’s meticulous observation of nature.The feelings are sincere, shining with brilliant ideas.The style is untamed, sometimes melodious, the language is full of music and symbol images2 :KeatsJohn Keats (1795-1821) is known as the "one whose name was written in water of the people", Shelley called him "the most active, most young poet", "a flower dew bred". His representative works are "Ode to a Nightingale", "Grecian song", "", "Ode to the autumn” “katydids and crickets" and "bright star"which sh ow the love of the eternity of natural beauty and negation of the vulgar reality,permeating with the spirit of freedom. Keats's poems have the beauty of painting in art (color) and sculpture beauty (stereoscopic), show the aestheticism tendency. His five years of writing career achieved brilliant in the British Poetry artistry.3 :ScottWalter Scott (1771-1832) is the founder of the European historical novels, but also the romantic poet and novelist.What laid his status in the history of literature is a series of historical novels known as the "Scotland style", in which "Ivanhoe" is his masterpiece. This work was based on Britain in the end of the twelfth century, Ivanhoe ,a Saxon noble descendant , adventure protagonist, descring the contest, the castle, the knight love, grand Greenwood life scenes.It reflects the contradiction between Norman the conqueror Saxon nobles and the noble and reproducted of the twelfth century British ethnic conflicts, ethnic customs and each class life.Scott's historical novel adopted the romantic and realistic combinations of tactics, which have made three contributions for t he later historical novels’writing: one is to put the custom description into the historical novel, two is to set the main character as ordinary people in a historical novel, three is to mix historical novels with the distinctive atmosphere. These factors greatly influenced his contemporaries and later many American novelist.2.2.2 the representatives of Passive RomanticismBritish first true romantic masters are three poets known as the " Lake Poet” ,they are also representatives of Passive romanticism. The poet William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850) and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 - 1834) and Robert Southey (1774 - 1843) lived in Cumberland lake ,northwest England, and has many similarities in wrting theory and ideas and thoughts, so they are known as the "Lake poets". Lake sent three poets in Medieval and patriarchal rural life, is a representative of romantic literature in the gentle qingli. The poet embrace contradictory attitude of the French Revolution, the capitalist industrial civilization and city civilization of disgust, to eulogize is patriarchal rural life and nature, like description of mysterious and bizarre scene with exotic scenery. Wordsworth is the greatest achievement of the lake poets, he and the "Lake Poets" another poet Coleridge published "Lyrical Ballads", become the foundation of British Romantic Literature works. Poems included in the poetrymostly done for Wordsworth, but Coleridge's poem "the ancient mariner" and "Kubla Khan" .which is full of illusion and strange imagery ,is also in it.1:WordsworthWordsworth is the greatest achievement of the lake poets, he and the "Lake Poets" another poet Coleridge published "Lyrical Ballads"which become the foundation of British Romantic Literature works. Poems included in the poetry mostly done for Wordsworth, but Coleridge's poem "the ancient mariner" and "Kubla Khan" also in it which,. Wordsworth's poetry described a landscape of lakes and mountains and pastoral life, singing the beauty of nature.Its style is simple, fresh and natural,so Wordsworth has been called the "poet laureate".Besides, Wordsworth's most important works of this period is the long poem "prelude".2:ColeridgeSamuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 - 1834) is the main representative of British Romanticism, but also an important theorist and criticist. Coleridge’s representative work is "the ancient mariner", describing a strange voyage of an old seaman. The poem is a story full of magical beauty . It is to explore the life of crime and punishment, poet combined the Pantheism Thought that love all things in the universe with Christian thought, putting foeward love and Christian atonement thought. The true value of this poem is not the story itself or the philosophy it contains, but in a magic painting marine picture that author created for readers accuractly .The poetry of Coleridge represents a romantic mystery and fantasy and also explored the beauty of music in poems technically. His creative practice and construction of theory not only influenced his contemporaries, also affected Byron, Shelley and Keats who against his political opinions.Besides it still have important reference value to today's poetic art explorer.3: SoutheyRobert Southey (1774-1843) is the "Lake Poets" and a "poet laureate" in the title of the poet. In life, he is a great guy. But in literature and political popularity, he is more suspicious to be a hack writer.On the British royal family special ceremony he is supposed to write a poem. He wrote a lot of lyric poetry, based on middle societies and exotic which are mysterious His representative poem "the vision of judgment" sing the praises of George III and is to please the British royal family,which was mocked by Bryon.ChapterIII:conclusionThe British Romantic movement made its creation free from the bondage of ration. The traditional describing nature, focusing on the ration having changed to describe the inner world and paying great attention to the expression of emotion,centering on the "self" to build self romantic world are the three outstanding features of British Romantic Literature and the world. In the creative practice, the British Romantic writers hold high the banner of "back to the Middle Ages", absorbing a large number of nutrients from the Medieval Folk Literature so as to get rid of the shackles of classicalism.They began to play a free imagination ,to express a strong emotion and to attempt new reform s in the aspects of the context, language, form and etc. All these contribute a unique artistic style to British Romantic literature.。