Chief Features of Romanticism

chief features of metaphysical poetry

Colonialism

Historians of English Literature have designated the period from 1798 to 1832 as the Romantic Period. William Wordsworth and S.T.Coleridge published Lyrical Ballads in 1798 and Sir William Scott died in 1832. The term ‘Romantic’ implies a literary and philosophical theory which tends to see individual at the very center of life and all experience. The individual is placed at the center of art. Literature is therefore an expression of his unique feelings and particular attitudes.

Romanticism is opposed to the artificial conventions, the reigning literary tradition and the poetic establishment. It is concerned with the individual, the informal, the emotional and the dynamic. It attempts to catch the transient moments. For the poets of this period,

Art is a mirror in which we find a reflection of life.

According to Wordsworth, ‘poetry is a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings’. It is an inborn gift and not something acquired. The poet’s imagination creates poetry. It is the expression of emotion. The traditional view that poetry is painstaking endeavor is discarded by the Romantics. Blake thought that poetry comes from inspiration, vision and prophecy. Keats said that poetry should come ‘as naturally as the leaves of a tree’.

Definition:

Romanticism means the return to nature.                                                                                                             - Rousseau

Romanticism is the opposite not of classical but of realism in literature.                                                            -Victor Hugo

Romanticism emphasizes on emotion rather than reason, the heart opposed to head.

     -George

Features:    

• Emphasis on emotional and imaginative spontaneity. Romantic poets validated strong emotions as an authentic source of aesthetic experience.
• Emphasis on the imagination as a positive and creative faculty. Romanticism permitted a person’s imagination and freedom in art and legitimized it as a critical authority.
• Importance of self-expression and individual feeling. The Romantic poets explored truth of imagination rather than scientific truth.
• Return to Nature. Romantic poets believed that close association with nature was healthy in terms of both mental and moral health. They were concerned that Nature should not just be seen scientifically but as a divine living force. It is thus amplified and glorified. They displaced humanity by external nature as poetic subject matter. Thus, the description of landscape and its aspects became prominent.
• Great range of subject. Lowly and eccentric characters like an idiot boy or a leech gatherer are material for poetic treatment by Wordsworth. Supernatural themes are used by Coleridge. Rural life is idealized in Romantic poetry. The Romantic poets also had fascination for solitary figures, social non-conformists, outcasts and rebels such as Prometheus, Cain, Don Juan and Satan. They often dealt with forgotten events and figures. It draws inspiration from folk literature and the literature of Middle Ages and of Classical antiquity. The Classical writers are explored anew and are drawn upon by Keats and Shelley; the Middle Ages inspire the novels of Scott and the poems of Coleridge, Southey and many more.
• Use of everyday speech of ordinary people instead of lofty poetic diction. The Romantic poets looked for new metres and stanzas to replace traditional forms. The heroic couplet gave place to the ballad, the sonnet, the Spenserian stanza and other experimental verse forms.
• Another innovation is the use of symbolist techniques notably by Blake and Shelley.
• Originality was an absolute essentiality of Romanticism. The ability of a poet to produce an original work through the process ‘creation from nothingness’ was considered very important
• The influence of Germany. The increasing bitterness of the long war with France led to replace French with the study of German literature. The first poetical works of Scott is based on the German and the effects of the new influence can be further observed in the works of Coleridge, Shelley, Byron and many more. In the course of time German increased its hold upon English, until by the middle of 19^th cen. it was perhaps the dominating foreign language.
• Abundant output. This is the most fertile period of our literature which excelled even the lavishness of the Elizabethans. The development of new ideas brings fresh inspiration for poetry. In prose we may note especially the fruitful yield of the novel, the rejuvenation of the essay and the unprecedented activity of critical and miscellaneous writers

Poets:-

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

Lord Byron (1788-1824)

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

John Keats (1795- 1821)

Ro9bert Southey (1774-1843)

Thomas Moore (1779- 1852)

Thomas Camphel (1777-1844)

Leigh Hunt (1784- 1859)