Romantic poets?

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Romantic poets were writers who wrote from approximately the late 18th to early 19th centuries. These writers championed the concepts of ignoring restraint, being free in emotions, embracing individuality, and immersing oneself in nature, and contributed to large-scale political and cultural change through their work. From a technical point of view, they moved the poem into a more simplistic, symbolic and freer style. Their influence is still felt today, not only in literature, but also in other fields of art.

Common beliefs and philosophies

While each of these writers had their own distinct qualities, they generally had some things in common: They generally believed that nature and the emotions were where spiritual truth was found, a response to the earlier Age of Enlightenment. The idea of ​​immersing yourself in the natural or the beautiful, or in some cases the natural and scary as in Blake’s Tiger, is decidedly romantic. For them, the mind was the means to transform the passions people experienced into something artistic and refined.

Most of these writers ascribed special innate gifts to children, believing that, as Wordsworth put it, they came from heaven “bringing clouds of glory.” They usually wrote poetry as a way to handle a “spontaneous overflow of feeling”, again a Wordsworthian notion. They were also generally much more interested in promoting women’s rights. For example, Mary Wollstonecraft, mother of Mary (Goodwin) Shelly — author of the famous novel Frankenstein — and mother-in-law of Percy Bysshe Shelly, wrote one of the first and most famous feminist treatises, A Vindication of the Rights of Women.

Features of their writing

Romantic poets changed the general way people approached gender. Although they were very aware of form and meter and were concerned with carefully crafting their works, many wrote at times in a free verse style, moving away from the elaborate rhyme schemes of the poets who had preceded them in favor of being more spontaneous. The language used became more simplistic and easier to understand for ordinary people, not only because the concept of back to nature and the basics was so widespread, but also because writers rejected the idea that poetry should only be appreciated by the elite . Symbolism became more important, because they valued individualism and wanted readers to get their own personal meaning and emotional response from writing.

Great poets and their works

While there were many poets – including a large number of women – who would fit the Romantic “picture”, the ones people generally consider most relevant are the “Big Six”: William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron , Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats. Each of these men had a clearly identifiable voice that set them apart from one another, yet all captured the Romantic ideals of individuality, freedom, emotionality, and simplicity. Experts largely credit them with propelling romantic poetry into vogue and moving it from one country to another.

William Blake is known for poems such as The Tiger and especially his collected works in Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. William Wordsworth’s Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood is a seminal work, but many of his other poems are cited frequently enough. Samuel Taylor Coleridge is best known for The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. Lord Byron’s narrative poems are much celebrated, including Childe Harold and Don Juan.

John Keats’ Ode on a Greek Urn and Ode to a Nightingale are among his best-known works. Keats had a very short life, dying when he was 25. Literary critics often see this as a tremendous tragedy given its initial potential. Percy Bysshe Shelley also died quite young, at the age of 30. His most celebrated works include Ozymandias, Ode to the West Wind and To a Skylark.

Outside of Britain, writers such as Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, Victor Hugo, Edgar Allen Poe, Aleksandr Pushkin, Hannah More, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mary Robinson and Heinrich Heine all embraced the romantic style. Others who wrote during this period included Elizabeth Barret Browning, Henry Wordsworth Longfellow, Thomas Moore and Mary Shelly. Many of these individuals held each other’s talents in high regard, appreciating the uniqueness that came not only from each poet’s subjective worldview, but also from the cultural elements found in each of the countries from which they came.
To influence
Taken succinctly, Romantic poets can be seen as reactionaries and humanists and, in many cases, these individuals are linked to elements of revolution and sociocultural change, fueling political demands for freedom through their writing. They changed poetry forever, inventing new forms and redefining “acceptable” written expression in a way that made the genre far more accessible to the average person. Nowhere is their influence more felt than in the American poets and writers of the mid-19th century. Many suspect that the works of Walt Whitman or the theories of Ralph Waldo Emerson could not exist without their influences. Their command of the language, coupled with a widespread appreciation of the images and ideas they conveyed, made their works a standard study in English curricula around the world.

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