The Romantic period lasts about forty years, from the French Revolution in 1789 to the Reform Act of 1832. It is sometimes called the Age of Revolutions. But the reign of terror in France began in 1793, the period of Napoleon followed rapidly, and by the early 1800s most of Europe was at war against France. So the poetry of the Romantics, from Wordsworth and Coleridge?s Lyrical Ballads (1798), is in many ways poetry of war. Society was changing, becoming industrial rather than agricultural as towns and cities developed. The government encouraged free trade. The new middle class became powerful, and there were moves towards voting reform and greater democracy. But change was slow, and there was a lot of suffering especially among the poor