Romanticism A Movement Across the Arts

Historical background : a revolt of the English imagination against the neoclassicism reason negative attitude towards the existing social and political conditions. Core --- reaction against neoclassicism Time French Revolution, the storming of Bastille --- Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity Jean-Jacques Rousseau: glorify human nature; claim for social democracy fight against tyranny

Definition  Romanticism refers to a movement in art, literature, and music during the 19 th century.  Romanticism is characterized by the 5 “I”s  Imagination Imagination  Intuition and emotions Intuition  Idealism Idealism  Inspiration Inspiration  Individuality Individuality

Imagination  Imagination was emphasized over “reason.”  This was a backlash against the rationalism characterized by the Neoclassical period or “Age of Reason.”  Imagination was considered necessary for creating all art.  British writer Samuel Taylor Coleridge called it “intellectual intuition.”

Intuition  Romantics placed value on “intuition,” or feeling and instincts, over reason.  Emotions were important in Romantic art.  British Romantic William Wordsworth described poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.”  “I felt before I thought”

Idealism  Idealism is the concept that we can make the world a better place.

Inspiration  The Romantic artist, musician, or writer, is an “inspired creator” rather than a “technical master.”  What this means is “going with the moment” or being spontaneous, rather than “getting it precise.”

Individuality  Romantics celebrated the individual.  During this time period, Women’s Rights and Abolitionism were taking root as major movements.  Walt Whitman, a later Romantic writer, would write a poem entitled “Song of Myself”: it begins, “I celebrate myself…”

Origins  Romanticism began to take root as a movement following the French Revolution.  The publication of Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1792 is considered the beginning of literary Romanticism.

poets poets often saw themselves as prophets in a time of crisis, trying to create “heaven” on earth. A poet is man "of more than unusual organic sensibility."

poetic composition act of poetic composition must arise from impulse; be free from the rules inherited from the past; and rely on instinct, intuition, & feeling.

INDIVIDUALISM Human beings were seen as essentially noble & good (though corrupted by society), and as possessing great power & potential that had formerly been ascribed only to god.

The Rainbow by Wordworth MY heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky: So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man; So be it when I shall grow old, Or let me die! The Child is father of the Man; I could wish my days to be Bound each to each by natural piety.

Daffodils by Wordsworth I wandered lonely as a Cloud That floats on high o'er Vales and Hills, When all at once I saw a crowd A host of dancing Daffodils; Along the Lake, beneath the trees, Ten thousand dancing in the breeze. The waves beside them danced, but they Outdid the sparkling waves in glee: -- A poet could not but be gay In such a laughing company: I gazed—and gazed—but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude, And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the Daffodils.

The Sick Rose O Rose thou art sick. The invisible worm, That flies in the night In the howling storm: Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy: And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy.

'Tis hard to say, if greater Want of Skill Appear in Writing or in Judging ill, But, of the two, less dang'rous is th' Offence, To tire our Patience, than mis-lead our Sense Some few in that, but Numbers err in this, Ten Censure wrong for one who Writes amiss; A Fool might once himself alone expose, Now One in Verse makes many more in Prose.... (1–8)

While they ring round the same unvaried chimes, With sure returns of still expected rhymes; Wher'er you find "the cooling western breeze", In the next line, it "whispers through the trees“ ;If crystal streams "with pleasing murmurs creep", The reader's threatened (not in vain) with "sleep"... (347–353)