Jaffal

Khalid K Jaffal

Samir M Rammal

9204520

07\01\2022

Romanticism: The major Features of Romanticism

Romanticism

Popular in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Romanticism is a literary

movement that focuses on nature and the importance of emotion and artistic freedom.

This movement in art and literature in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was in

revolt against the Neoclassicism of the previous centuries. The German poet Friedrich Schlegel,

who is given credit for first using the term romantic to describe literature, defined it as "literature

depicting emotional matter in an imaginative form." This is as accurate a general definition as

can be accomplished, although Victor Hugo's phrase "liberalism in literature" is also apt.

Imagination, emotion, and freedom are certainly the focal points of romanticism. Any list of

particular characteristics of the literature of romanticism includes subjectivity and an emphasis

on individualism; spontaneity; freedom from rules; solitary life rather than life in society; the

beliefs that imagination is superior to reason and devotion to beauty; love of and worship of

nature; and fascination with the past, especially the myths and mysticism of the Middle Ages.

English poets: William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy

Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats

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American poets: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allen Poe, Henry

David Thoreau, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman.

The start of romanticism

Poetry

Scholars say that the Romantic Period began with the publishing of Lyrical Ballads

(1798) by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. This was one of the first

collections of poems that strayed from the more formal poetic diction of the Neoclassical Period.

Poets of the period instead used everyday words that the average person could understand. This

also aided in expressing human emotion. Wordsworth primarily wrote about nature. He felt it

could provide a source of mental cleanliness and spiritual understanding. One of Wordsworth’s

well-known works is “The Solitary Reaper” (1807). This poetry is written in blank verse and is

extremely personal and intimate, with much of the content based on the author’s life.

Coleridge and Wordsworth were very good friends and the two often influenced each

other. While Wordsworth was much more meditative and calmer, Coleridge was the opposite

and lived a more uncontrolled life. Of his three major poems, only one is complete: The Rime of

the Ancient Mariner (1798). This poem tells the story of a sailor’s journey and his experiences

on the ship. The sailor is cursed by supernatural powers and is only able to return home when he

appreciates the animals and nature around him. He is forced to wander the Earth sharing his story

due to his earlier mistakes. (“The romantic period”).

The Second Generation of Romantic Poets

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Succeeding Blake, Coleridge, and Wordsworth was a new generation of poets, each

following the pattern of Romanticism of those before them. John Keats is still one of the most

popular of these poets, with his work continually read and analyzed today. Keats aimed to

express extreme emotion in his poetry, using natural imagery to do. He is well known for his

odes, lyrical stanzas that are typically written in praise of, or in dedication to, something or

someone that the writer admires. These odes followed the genre of lyrical poetry and focused on

intense emotion using personal narrative. Among these odes, “Ode to a Nightingale” (1819) and

“Ode on a Grecian Urn” (1819) are most famous.

Percy Bysshe Shelley was seen as a radical thinker for his religious atheism and largely

ostracized by his contemporaries for his political and social views. One of his most famous

works is Adonais (1821). This was a pastoral elegy, a poem combining death and rural life,

written for John Keats. The poem mourns the death of Keats and his contribution to poetry.

Lord Byron differed from the writing styles of Keats and Shelley. He was heavily

influenced by the satire and wit from the previous period and infused this in his poetry. His satire

Don Juan (1819-1824) is told in 17 cantos, divisions of long poems, and is based on the

traditional legend of Don Juan. Byron changes the original telling of the story and instead of

creating a womanizing character, he makes Don Juan someone easily seduced by women. The

cantos follow his character’s journey as he travels throughout Europe meeting several women

and continually trying to escape from trouble. (“The romantic period”).

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Characteristics of Romanticism in Literature

1. Glorification of Nature

The poetry of the English Romantic period contains many descriptions and ideas

of nature. All these authors discuss in varying degrees, the role of nature in

acquiring meaningful insight into the human condition. These writers all make

appeals to nature as if it some kind of living entity calls made for nature to rescue

the struggling and carry his ideas to the world. Romantic poets love nature and

celebrate it in its various dimensions. They wrote about the beauty of green

meadows, thick forests, thin flowers, high hills, riverbanks, rural scenes, wild

wind, fresh air, sunrises, and sets, etc Almost every romantic poet touched every

scene of natural beauty. The romantic poet’s substituted love, emotions,

imagination, beauty.

Example:

Keats is one of the greatest lovers and admirers of nature. He expresses the

beauty of both real and artistic forms of nature. Everything in nature for him is

full of wonder and mystery-the rising sun, the moving cloud, the growing bud,

and the swimming fish. His love for nature is purely sensuous and he loves the

beautiful sights and scenes of nature for their own sake. He believes that "A thing

of beauty is a joy forever. He looks with child-like delight at the objects of nature.

In his poem Ode to a Nightingale, he writes:

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My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains my sense, as though of hemlock I

had drunk or emptied some dull opiate to the drains

Keats is astonished to see the happiness of the Nightingale. Before hearing of the

song of the bird, he tried many ways of forgetting worries Keats believed he has

either been poisoned or is influenced by the drug. But Keats felt a tranquil and

continual joy in the song of Nightingale and makes him completely happy. It

indicates to uniting with nature gives eternal happiness for mankind. Nature

works as a source of generating happiness and is the best guide for human beings

to live happy life. (“Muketha, Geoffrey M, 1999”)

2. Awareness and Acceptance of Emotions

One of the main characteristic attitudes of the Romanticism period is the use of

emotion over reason in daily life. This is in part because of the extreme opposition

that the people of this period had to the Enlightenment attitudes. The writers of

the Enlightenment believed that all knowledge was attainable through human

reason. There are two works from this era that are an excellent example of the use

of emotion instead of reason.

Example:

In Browning’s My Last Duchess the protagonist is telling the story of the last

Duchess that he had while admiring his painting of her. At first, he seems to be

commemorating her memory by telling the story of his last wife, but as the story

progresses he reveals the truth about why she is in a painting and not standing

beside him. He says: “I gave commands;/ Then all smiles stopped together. There
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she stands/ As if alive”. This is the major turning point in the story when it is

revealed what happened to the too-happy Duchess. He has had her sent away or

probably had killed indicated when he says that she is alive through the painting.

He has abandoned all reason by having her killed, and let emotion completely

take over his decisions. Also, the reason that he gives his “commands” for the

Duchess is absolutely emotional without regarding reason at all. Earlier in his

monologue, he said,

She had

A heart-how shall I say? too soon made glad,

To easily impressed; she liked whate’er

She looked on, and her looks went everywhere. (Emotion Over Reason During the

Romanticism Period English Literature Essay.")

3. Celebration of Artistic Creativity and Imagination

writers of the Romantic movement tried to find the importance of imagination and

the creative impulse. Romantic poets and writers celebrated the power of

imagination and the creative process. They believed that artists and writers looked

at the world differently, and they celebrated that vision in their work. You can see

this in William Wordsworth’s poem, “The Prelude."

4. Attention to aesthetic beauty.

Romantic literature also explores the theme of aesthetic beauty, not just of nature

but of people as well. This was especially true with descriptions of female beauty.
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Writers praised women of the Romantic era for their natural loveliness, rather

than anything artificial or constrained. (“The Romantic Period.”)

5. Themes of Solitude

Writers of the Romantic era believed that creative inspiration came from solitary

exploration. They celebrated the feeling of being alone, whether that meant

loneliness or a much-needed quiet space to think and create. Samuel Taylor

Coleridge’s poem “Frost at Midnight." (“The Romantic Period.”)

6. Focus on the Individual and Spirituality

Romantic writers turned inward, valuing the individual experience above all else.

This in turn led to the heightened sense of spirituality in Romantic work, and the

addition of occult and supernatural elements.

The work of Edgar Allan Poe exemplifies this aspect of the movement; for exam-

ple, The Raven tells the story of a man grieving for his dead love (an idealized

woman in the Romantic tradition) when a seemingly sentient Raven arrives and

torments him, which can be interpreted literally or seen as a manifestation of his

mental instability.

7. Personification and Pathetic Fallacy

Romantic literature’s fixation on nature is characterized by the heavy use of both

personification and pathetic fallacy. Mary Shelley used these techniques to great

effect in Frankenstein:
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Its fair lakes reflect a blue and gentle sky; and, when troubled by the winds, their

tumult is but as the play of a lively infant, when compared to the roarings of the

giant ocean.

Romanticism continues to influence literature today; Stephenie Meyers’ Twilight

novels are clear descendants of the movement, incorporating most of the

characteristics of classic Romanticism despite being published a century and a

half after the end of the movement’s active life.

Key Poetic Forms of Romanticism

1. William Wordsworth (1770-1850) came from the Lake District and was the leading
poet of the group.

2. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) was Wordsworth's closest colleague and collab-

orator.

3. Robert Southey (1774-1843), a prolific writer of poetry and prose who settled in the
Lake District.

4. Charles Lamb (1775-1834) was a poet but is best known for his essays and literary
criticism; a Londoner, he was especially close to Coleridge;

The second generation of Romantic poets included:

1. George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824); 

2. Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) was one of the leading poets;

3. John Keats (1795-1821) was a London poet, especially known for his odes and sonnets
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