Discuss some basic attributes of Romantic Poetry.

"Romanticism is the art of presenting people with the literary works which are capable of affording them
the greatest possible pleasure, in the present state of their customs and beliefs. The Romantic Movement lasted
from about 1750 to about 1870, is often defined as second Renaissance. Romanticism cannot be identified with a
single style, technique, or attitude, but romantic writing is generally characterized by a highly imaginative and
subjective approach, emotional intensity, freedom of thought and expression, an idealization of nature, and a
dreamlike or visionary quality. Romanticism is the name given to a dominant movement in literature and the other
arts – particularly music and painting – in the period from the 1770s to the mid-nineteenth century.

This movement in literature and the revolutionary idealism in European politics are both generated by the same
human craving for freedom from traditions and tyranny. The Romantic Movement revives the poetic ideals of love,
beauty, emotion, imagination, romance and beauty of Nature. Keats celebrates beauty, Shelley adores love,
Wordsworth glorifies nature Byron idealizes humanism, Scott revives the medieval lore and Coleridge amalgamates
supernatural. As a result, the Romantic Movement revolts against the ideals, principles, intellectualism, aristocracy
and technicality of Augustan period and smoothed the run of broad emotional gallery of substance relinquishing
the rigidity of ‘form’. Lyricism, rather than intellectual or satirical, is the basic preoccupation of Romantic poetry.
Here is the full expression of one’s own personal feelings and sentiments towards an object. As such there is an
abundance of lyrics, songs, sonnets, odes, and egotistical poems in Romantic poetry. Wordsworth, Coleridge,
Shelley, Keats and Byron are all famous lyrical poets. All these lyrics favor subjectivity, emotionalism, impulse and
free play of imagination.

Some of the main characteristics of Romantic literature include a focus on the writer or narrator’s emotions and
inner world; celebration of nature, beauty, and imagination; rejection of industrialization, organized religion,
rationalism, and social convention; idealization of women, children, and rural life; inclusion of supernatural or
mythological elements; interest in the past; frequent use of personification; experimental use of language and
verse forms, including blank verse; and emphasis on individual experience of the "sublime."

1. Individuality/Democracy/Personal Freedom
2. Spiritual/Supernatural Elements
3. Nature as a Teacher
4. Interest in Past History/Ancient Greek and Roman Elements
5. Celebration of the Simple Life
6. Interest in the Rustic/Pastoral Life
7. Interest in Folk Traditions
8. Use of Common Language
9. Use of Common Subjects
10. One Sided/Opinionated
11. Idealized Women
12. Frequent Use of Personification
13. Examination of the Poet's Inner Feelings