The start of the Romantic Age coincided with the start of the French Revolution in 1789. It ends in 1837. Just as the revolution was changing the social order, the romantic poets were taking literature in a whole new direction. The mechanical reason that pervaded the work of the previous era was replaced by strong emotions and a return to nature. Animals and respect for nature were frequently used subjects in works of his period. The first generation of poets included William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Sir Walter Scott. Their primary contribution to literature was with their lyrical ballads. They used the typical romantic themes of respect for nature and all of its creatures. Wordsworth is above all the poet of the remembrance of things past, or as he himself put it, of “emotion recollected in tranquility.” Some object or event in the present triggers a sudden renewal of feelings he had experienced in youth; the result is a poem exhibiting the sharp discrepancy between what Wordsworth called “two consciousness.”The poem “Michael” is founded on the actual misfortunes of a family at Grasmere. In this poem, Wordsworth describes about a relationship of father, named Michael, and a son, named Luke. Michael is a shepherd in Grasmere valley. He is married to a woman, named Isabel. She is a housewife, who makes wool and rope to pass her time. They have a child, named Luke. Michael takes his son with him, so he can help him out with his work. Michael has special bond with his son. Luke is like a friend to his father. Michael has rocked his cradle like a woman’s gentle hand. He has raised Luke like a mother raised his son. He has also changed his clothes when Luke was a little boy. When Luke has turned eighteenth, he decided to go to a big city for work, and free his land. Michael takes his son to the mountain valley, and he shows him a work they have done together. Michael tells him that ...
