Romanticism & Romantic Poetry

Romanticism  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 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.”

Idealism  Idealism is the concept that we can make the world a better place.  Idealism refers to any theory that emphasizes the spirit, the mind, or language over matter – thought has a crucial role in making the world the way it is.  Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher, held that the mind forces the world we perceive to take the shape of space-and-time.

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.

The Arts  Romanticism was a movement across all the arts: visual art, music, and literature.  All of the arts embraced themes prevalent in the Middle Ages: chivalry, courtly love. Literature and art from this time depicted these themes. Music (ballets and operas) illustrated these themes.  Shakespeare came back into vogue.

Visual Arts  Neoclassical art was rigid, severe, and unemotional; it hearkened back to ancient Greece and Rome  Romantic art was emotional, deeply- felt, individualistic, and exotic. It has been described as a reaction to Neoclassicism, or “anti-Classicism.”

Visual Arts: Examples Neoclassical Art Romantic Art

Literature  Writers explored supernatural and gothic themes.  Writers wrote about nature – Transcendentalists believed God was in nature, unlike “Age of Reason” writers like Franklin and Jefferson, who saw God as a “divine watchmaker,” who created the universe and left it to run itself.

William Blake  Poet, painter, and engraver, Blake worked to bring about a change both in the social order and in the minds of men.  Blake lived and worked in the teeming metropolis of London at a time of great social and political change that profoundly influenced his writing.  Blake had a unique religious, spiritual viewpoint based on a visionary idea, freedom, and individualism, and he had radical political views.  Blake himself believed that his writings were of national importance and that they could be understood by a majority of men.

William Wordsworth  Wordsworth's mother died when he was eight--this experience shapes much of his later work. Not long after, his father died, leaving him and his four siblings orphans.  Wordsworth's poetry centers around the interest and sympathy for the life, troubles and speech of the "common man".  Wordsworth was influenced by his wanderings and his preoccupation with nature and man’s obsession with materialism.  He was friendly with Samuel Taylor Coleridge.  Devastated by the death of his daughter Dora in 1847, Wordsworth seemingly lost his will to compose poems. William Wordsworth died at Rydal Mount on April 23, 1850, leaving his wife Mary to publish The Prelude three months later.

Percy Bysshe Shelley  As the eldest son, Shelley stood in line to inherit not only his grandfather's considerable estate but also a seat in Parliament.  He attended Eton College and Oxford University.  He had heretical and atheistic opinions.  Shelley eloped and married Mary Shelley (who wrote Frankenstein).  Shelley was influenced by Godwin (Mary Shelley’s father) and his freethinking Socialist philosophy.  His poetry emphasizes individualism, freedom, nature, and the importance of the subjective imagination.

John Keats  Keats lost both his parents at a young age.  He was a licensed apothecary, but never practiced as one; instead, he dedicated himself to writing poetry.  Keats’ poetry focuses on mortality, the beauty of nature, and includes many myths and allusions to Greek mythology and aesthetics.  Keats contracted tuberculosis and died at only twenty-five years old.  Because he was ill for a time before he died, many of his poems address his awareness of death, the importance of beauty and God, and frequently reference mythology and the ancients.

George Gordon, Lord Byron  The most flamboyant and notorious of the major Romantics, George Gordon, Lord Byron, was also the most fashionable poet of his day.  He created an immensely popular Romantic hero (known as the Byronic Hero)—defiant, melancholy, haunted by secret guilt—for which, to many, he seemed the model.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge  Samuel Taylor Coleridge published The Lyrical Ballads with William Wordsworth in 1798, an event later seen as the beginning of the Romantic movement in England.  Coleridge held imagination to be the vital force behind poetry.  Coleridge suffered from financial problems, and later ill health. He became addicted to opium (evident in much of his poetry), and lived off of financial donations and grants until he died.  Coleridge is most noted for the haunting imagery of his poems “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and “Kubla Khan.”