The force of the industrial revolution highly influenced and rapidly changed Britain from the 18th to the 19th century. As cities expanded at an increasing rate and industrialization grew, peasants and country-dwellers sought life in the city. The population of the British countryside fell faster than ever before. As this happened, urban life revealed its plethora of problems, such as class conflict, working class struggle and lack of appropriate housing. British Romanticism emerged out of the belief that the beauty and pureness of nature offered the only cure for the many problems caused by urbanization and an industrial city. The Romantics extolled the individual over civilization and society.
With Victorian society, came a sense of utter certainty in objective truth and a wave of conservative ideals. British Modernism might be seen as a reaction against this, beginning in late 19th century. Modernism can generally be defined as a reaction against tradition, with the belief that traditional forms of social organization, art and literature were outdated in a changing world.
As a rejection of the problems caused by the industrial revolution, British Romanticism strongly believed in the importance of emotion over logic and reason. Romanticists saw nature as a way to escape the rationalization of humankind. British Modernism was a revolt against the conservatism and unquestioning nature of the Victorian era. It is characterized by a strong and tireless fight against tradition and a stand against the morals that emerged out of the enlightenment.
Romanticist writers view man as an utterly individual being, isolated from society and isolated from his world. This human being is driven by his own inspiration, detached from society. Usually the individual is portrayed as a gifted, even ingenious loner. Modernists understand the individual as a kind of "networked computer," a being without free will, who does not look for guidance within, but is driven by factors outside of himself. According to Modernist thinking, an individual is molded by the external factors that surround him.
Among the first British Romantic poets were friends and associates living in the Lake District of England, and they were known as the Lake poets. The main figures of this group included William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge. Through their various works, including the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Coleridge, readers can see the emergence of Romantic characteristics. The "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," for example, shows the Romantic emphasis on myth and symbolism, emotional depth and the individual in nature.
Modernist thinking and attitudes started to emerge as early as mid-19th century. Before the end of the Victorian era, radical writers such as A.E Housman and Gerard Manley Hopkins, showed the very first signs of Modernism. Hopkins' experimental nature and extensive use of imagery separated him from other, far more traditional writers of the Victorian era. His poem "The Caged Skylark" shows the appearance of early British Modernism.
The next and more established generation of British Romantics included Lord Byron, Percy Shelley and John Keats. Lord Byron's inspired work "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" takes the reader through a man's journey through Europe, while harshly criticizing society in London. Percy Shelley's influential poem "The Masque of Anarchy" is a revolutionary work, calling for nonviolent protest.
Early to mid-20th century gave birth to a large number of important British modernist works. The influential Irish-born novelist James Joyce produced works such as "Dubliners" and what is commonly known as the epitome of Modernism, "Ulysses." Other well-known Modernist writers, such as Virginia Woolf and T.S Eliot, appeared between the two world wars.