Which development helped fuel Romantic English literature?

• A. The decline of nature in literature
• B. The French Revolution and its political and social upheavals
• C. The Industrial Revolution's transformation of labor
• D. The rise of rationalist science in 19th century

Answer: (B)

Romantic English literature drew its energy from a moment of political and social upheaval in Europe, especially the French Revolution. The ideas of liberty, equality, and human dignity sparked a belief that imagination, emotion, and individual experience could reveal deeper truths than rigid tradition or rigid reason. This spirit encouraged poets to trust their feelings, celebrate nature, and challenge established authority, laying the ground for a poetry that values the imagination and the voice of the individual. You can see this in how Wordsworth and Coleridge foreground ordinary life and the natural world as sources of insight, and how later Romantics push for social change and justice through lyrical expression. The other options don’t fit as the main driver: Romanticism centers on emotion and nature, not a decline of nature; industrial changes influenced the backdrop and themes but aren’t the spark that launches the movement; and rationalist science, associated with Enlightenment thinking, runs counter to Romantic emphasis on imagination and emotion.