Willliam Wordsworth

Although the point is debatable, the production of William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads is considered by some as the beginning of the Romantic period. The end of the period is said to be around the mid 1800s, but it can be (and has been) argued that the Romantic period is continuing even today. The Lyrical Ballads turned away from the era's accepted topics of poetry, and moved toward a humanistic approach verging on existentialism--one argument of the continuation of the Romantic Period. The following is a great example:

The Tables Turned: an evening scene, on the same subject (by Wordsworth, composed probably 23 May 1798)

Up, up, my friend, and clear you looks!
Why all this toil and trouble?
Up, up my friend, and quit your books,
Or surely you’ll grow double!

The sun above the mountain’s head
A freshening luster mellow
Through all the long green fields has spread,
His first sweet evening yellow.

Books! ‘tis a dull and endless strife;
Come hear the woodland linnet —
How sweet his music! On my life,
There’s more of wisdom in it.

And hark, how blithe the throstle sings!
And he is no mean preacher;
Come forth into the light of things,
Let nature be your teacher.

She has a world of ready wealth,
Our minds and hearts to bless —
Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
Truth breathed by cheerfulness.

One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good
Than all the sages can.

Sweet is the lore which nature brings,
Our meddling intellect
Misshapes the beauteous forms of things —
We murder to dissect.

Enough of science and of art,
Close up these barren leaves;
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.

Wordsworth's writings heavily influence "Western" literature. If you click here, this site provides many links to Romantic Literature: lectures, scholarly articles, readings and the like. In the section "Poets on Poets" you can hear recitations. Hearing the poems of Romantic Poets adds another dimension to their beauty. At the same site you can listen to Rachel Blau DuPlessis reading William Wordsworth's poem "Composed upon Westminster Bridge, Sept. 3, 1802"