This period is characterized by the rejection of the preconceived ideas of order, calm, harmony, balance and rationality that had characterized the Neoclassical period.Romanticism placed particular emphasis on the individual as a person, the irrational, the imaginative, as well as the spontaneous and emotional transcendental vision of the surrounding world. These factors resulted in its authors expressing a deepened appreciation of the beauties of nature; a general exaltation of emotions over reason and of the senses over intellect. This train of thought is in part a the consequence of the negative social impact of the Industrial Revolution (as can be seen in the works of William Blake) and the erosion of rural communities, as well as the scientific rationalization of nature, that came with the Age of Enlightenment. There is often debate, regarding thebeginning date of the Romantic period, some claim it to be in 1785, immediately after the Age of Sensibility, whilst others say it began in 1789, with the start of the French Revolution, but on the whole most agree it started in 1798, the year of publication of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s book “The Lyrical Ballads”. This period subsequently ended with the passing of the Reform Bill (which signalled the Victorian Era) and with the death of Sir Walter Scott. American literature also had its own Romantic period, but typically when one speaks of Romanticism, one is referring to this greatand diverse age of British literature, perhaps the most popular and well-known of all literary ages. This era includes the works of such juggernauts as Wordsworth, Coleridge, William Blake, Lord Byron, John Keats, Shelley, Jane Austen, and Mary Shelley.