Romantic Poetry

romanticism develops between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. Poety
gives expression to the emotional experience and individual feelings. The imagination has a primary role in
the process of poetic composition (Wordworth and coleridge). With the imagination the romantic poets
could see beyond reality. the poet was seen as a visionary or as the one who had to rule between man and
nature. in this period a child was considerate purer than an adult because he was incontaminated by
civilization. his uncorrupted sensibility made him even closer to God and the sources of Creation, so
childhood was a state to be admired and cultivated.
The importance of the individual

There was a new emphasis on the meaning of the individual. The Augustians had seen man as a social
animal, the Romantics, on the other hand, saw him essentially in a solitary state, and emphasized the
special qualities of each individual's mind. They exalted the atypical, the marginalized, the rebels.

The view of nature

Romantic poets also considered nature as a living force and, in a pantheistic key, as the expression of God
in the universe. Nature became a major source of inspiration, a stimulus to thought, a source of comfort
and joy, and a means of conveying moral truths.

Poetic technique

Romantic poets sought a new and individual style through the choice of a language and subject suitable for
poetry. More vivid and familiar words became essential in this period.

Two generations of poets

The great English romantic poets are generally grouped into two generations. The poets of the first
generation, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, were characterized by an attempt to
theorize about poetry. While planning the Lyrical Ballads, they agreed that Wordsworth would write about
the beauty of nature and ordinary things with the aim of making them interesting to the reader; Coleridge,
on the other hand, should address visionary themes, the supernatural and the mystery.

The Rainbow

Wordsworth, in this poem, underlines what is his bond with nature, a source of pleasure: since he was a
child, the vision of the rainbow awakened his soul, and he wishes that this could also be in old age, or that
he could also die. As usual for the poet, the perception of nature is the fundamental concept of the work,
which Wordsworth uses to evoke these images in memory.
Wordworth
William Wordsworth was born in Cumberland (now called Cumbria) in the English Lake District, in 1770. In
1791 he graduated from St John's College, Cambridge. His contact with revolutionary France had filled him
with enthusiasm for the democratic ideals, which he hoped could lead to a new and just social order.
Wordworth

In 1791 he returned to France and fell in love with Annette Vallon, with whom he had a daughter, Camline.
In 1795 he received an inheritance and moved to Donet with his sister Dorothy who remained his closest
friend. In the same year he met Samuel Taylor Coleridge and their friendship proved crucial to the
development of English romantic poetry. They produced a collection of poems called Lyrical Ballads which
appeared anonymously in 1798. The second edition in 1800 also contained Wordsworth's famous Preface
which would become the Manifesto of English Romanticism. Wordsworth is also celebrated for his' Lucy
poems, a series of five poems written between 1798 and 1801. In 1799 William and Dorothy settled in the
Lake District and in 1802 William married a childhood friend. Mary Hutchinson and they had five children.
In subsequent years
Wordsworth wrote some of his best poems of him, which were published in two volumes in 1807. He died
in 1850.

The Manifesto of English Romanticism

For Wordsworth, however, poetry was a solitary act, originating not from the extraordinary but from the
ordinary. While designing the Lyrical Ballads with Coleridge, they decided that he would tackle man, nature
and everyday things trying to make them interesting for the reader, while Coleridge would have to write
about the supernatural and creating mysteries seem to be true.
In his preface he explained that the topic should be about everyday situations or incidents and with
ordinary people. The language should be simple and the objects called from their ordinary buttocks. The
reason for Wordsworth's choice lies in the fact that in humble rural life man is closer to him or his own
purer passions. So the poet is not a man in an ivory tower, but a man among men, who writes about what
interests him to humanity.

The relationship between man and nature

He was interested in the relationship between the natural world and human consciousness. More than a
precise and objective observation of natural phenomena, his poetry offers a detailed account of the
complex interaction between man and nature, of the influences, intuitions, emotions and sensations that
arise from this contact. Wordsworth believed that man and nature were inseparable, man does not exist
outside the natural world but as an active participant in it. In his pantheistic view, Wordsworth saw nature
as something that includes both inanimate and human nature, each of which is part of the same whole.
Nature is a source of pleasure and joy, it comforts man in pain and teaches him to love and act morally
Wordsworth also saw it as the seat of the mighty spirit of the universe.

The importance of the senses and memory

For Wordsworth, nature was also a world of sensory perception and used primarily the sensitivity of the
eye and ear. Feelings lead to simple thoughts, which then combine into complex and organized ideas.
Memory, therefore, is an important force in the growth process of the poet's morality, and it is memory
that allows Wordsworth to give life and power to the earth.

The poet's task and style

His job is to call attention to the ordinary things in life, to the humblest people, where the deepest
emotions and truths can be found.
Daffodils

This poem records the poet's experience of a walk with his sister Dorothy in their home in the Lake
District. If one of Wandsworth's most famous poems, in which he vividly conveys his love of nature.
Written in 1808 it was published in 1807. The whole poem is engaged in the description of the natural
landscape and of the sensations it arouses in man, in particular in the poet, more sensitive than the
common man. Wordsworth becomes aware of these joyful sensations only after the experience, once back
home, bringing to mind the vision of daffodils thanks to memory, which is a fundamental tool for man and
especially for the poet.
"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

The metric form of the text is that of a ballad, it is rich in archaisms, Coleridge also incorporates various
motifs typical of English folk ballads. These are for example the dialogical form, as the whole poem is a
dialogue between the old Sailor and the wedding guest whom he stops in the first verse, and the presence
of the supernatural, which characterizes the visions following the death of the bird. . The style is elaborate,
enriched with assonances, consonances and repetitions, as well as figures of sound and rhythm that give
the text a particular literary patina.

Plot

The Ballad of the Old Sailor is divided into seven sections, in the first stage: An old sailor meets three
guests who are on their way to a wedding and stops one to tell him his story. He tells him how the ship he
was on, once it crossed the Equator, was led by storms to run aground in the ice of the South Pole.
Suddenly, through the fog, a white bird arrives, an albatross, greeted by the crew as a carrier. of luck. The
Sailor, however, kills the bird for no reason. From this moment on, a spell falls on the ship, which is pushed
beyond the equator and then remains stationary in the calm. The ship's crew, previously consenting in an
ambiguous manner, now openly accuses the Sailor of his crime, placing the corpse of the albatross around
his neck. The sailors begin to die of thirst when suddenly another ship appears: it is a ghost ship led by
Death, the Sailor's companions die one after the other, while the Sailor is the only one to survive. Since the
Sailor has now regretted his mistake, the albatross detaches from his neck and falls into the sea. His
punishment now is to travel around the world and tell his story, to teach men, through example, to love
and respect God's creatures.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born in Devonshire in 1772. He received an excellent education, during the
university years he was heavily influenced by French revolutionary ideals, which made him an enthusiastic
republican. After his disillusionment with the French Revolution, he planned to move to America. In 1795
Coleridge met the poet William Wordsworth and in 1800 he settled in the Lake District. An important
collaboration between the two poets started and most of Coleridges best poetry was written in these years:

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, his masterpiece, written in 1798; it is the first poem of the collection
Lyrical Ballads.

. Christabel, an unfinished poem set in the Middle Ages, about a young girl under a witch's spell, it was
written in 1797

Kubla Khan, again unfinished written probably under influence of opium,

He died in 1834.