Ballad-  a poem that recounts a story- generally some dramatic episode - and that has been composed to be sung.  Also called popular, folk, or tradition ballads, these were usually passed down verbally and contained simple language. Traditional ballads exhibit the following features:  (1) simple stanzas that may take the form of the ballad stanza; (2)  abrupt transitions between stanzas where weaker stanzas were dropped over time; (3) refrains;  (4) stock descriptive phrases; (5) incremental repetition; (6) dialogue used to create character and advance the story line; and (7) impersonal language that does not belie the singer's personal feelings or judgments about the ballad's content.  See also: Literary Ballad, Ballad Stanza

Ballad Stanza:  four line stanza with abcb thyme scheme that may be approximate rather than perfect rhyme.  The first and third lines typically have four accented syllables while the second and fourth lines have three.  Scottish poet Robert Burns's "Ye Flowery Banks" (1792) is written in ballad stanzas.  Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth experimented with ballad forms and traditions in their breakthrough volume, Lyrical Ballads (1798).  "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," by Coleridge, was published in that volume and is composed mainly of traditional, four-line ballad stanzas. See also:  Ballad, Literary Ballad

Gothic Novel- a romance typically written as a long prose horror narrative that exhibits the Gothic qualities of doom and gloom as well as an emphasis on chivalry and magic.  The Gothic novel, which made it's first apperance with the publication of Horace Walpole's The Castle Ontranto: A Gothic Story (1764) and rose to literary eminence with Ann Radcliffe's The Italian (1797).  Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) is also an example of a gothic novel.  Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey (1818) is a gentle parody of Gothic fiction.  See also:  Novel, Prose

Historical Romance- romances where the love stories' characters, situations, or events are given a historical setting.  Sir Walter Scott's work often made use of this genre (ex: Ivanhoe). See also:  Romance, Quest Romance

Literary Ballad- a poem written in deliberate imitation of the traditional folk ballad.  William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Thomas Hardy wrote literary ballads in an attempt to reground poetry in the language and emotions of common people.  Two of the most well-known literary ballads are Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (1798) and John Keats' "La belle dame sans merci" (1820).  See also:  Ballad, Ballad Stanza

Magazines-There were multiple literary magazines established during the Romantic period.  See also:  Prose

    The Edinburgh Review (1802)
    Quarterly
    Blackwood's (1817)
    London (1820)
   

Newspapers- this genre boomed during this period as a demand for communication of intelligence rose.  See also:  Prose

    Political Register (1802)
    The London Times went to steam press in 1814 in order to meet demand and circulation doubled.

Novel-  a lengthy fictional prose piece. Romantic Novelists:  Sir Walter Scott, Jane Austen, Mary Wollstonecraft, the Bronte sisters.  See also:  Gothic novel, Prose

Prose- ordinary written or spoken expression; as applied specifically to literature, nonpoetic expression, that is, expression that exhibits purposeful grammatical design but that is not characterized by deliberate or regular rhythmic or metrical patterns.  Popular prose authors of the Romantic period include: Thomas De Quincey (Confessions of an English Opium-Eater [1821]), William Hazlitt (Spirit of the Age [1825]), and Walter Savage Landor (Imaginary Conversations [1824-29]).  See also:  Novel, Gothic Novel, Newspapers, Magazines

Quest Romance- the search for the Grail (of Girl) common in medieval and Renaissance romances that was turned by Romantic poets into an often frustrated psychological quest for some ideal, forbidden, lost, or otherwise unreachable state or condition.  Adapted and internalized by Romantic poets like Percy Bysshe Shelley in "Alastor" (1816) and John Keats in "La belle dame sans merci" (1820).  See also:  Romance, Historical Romance

Romance- a term that has been used at different times to refer to a variety of fictional works involving some combination of the following:   high adventure, thwarted love, mysterious circumstances, arduous quests, and improbable triumphs.  See also:  Quest Romance, Historical Romance

Definition Source:  Murfin, Ross, and Supryia M. Ray.  The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms.  2nd ed.  New York:  Bedford/St. Martin's:  2003. 

Authors and works Source:  Damrosch, David.  The Longman Anthology of British Literature.  Vol. 2A.  2nd ed. New York:  Longman.  

Back to Top

Back to Romanticism Home

Questions or Comments?

Last updated:   June 21, 2005