Romantic poetry emphasizes individualism, emotion, and nature, rejecting neoclassicism and the Enlightenment. The movement, which began in Germany, influenced Western thought and art. Romantic poets created new modes of expression and emphasized intuition and imagination. The movement lasted into the 20th century and influenced later movements like Surrealism. Famous Romantic poets include Wordsworth, Shelley, and Emerson. Some literary theorists question the Romantic perception of the poet as an individual genius.
The poetry of the Romantic era rejects neoclassicism and the Enlightenment and is characterized by individualism and subjectivity, emotion and the pastoral. There is a concern for the poet as genius and for the hero’s inner struggles and passions. While definitions of the term vary, Romanticism continues to exert considerable influence on Western thought and art, but it should not be confused with contemporary notions of what is Romantic. Almost every country has produced romantic poets.
A broad artistic and philosophical movement that began in late 18th century Germany, Romanticism arrived in different countries at different times. The complexity and multiplicity of the movement is reflected in the various definitions of the term, causing the American scholar AO Lovejoy to point out that romantic means so many things that it means nothing by itself. While love may be a subject of romantic poetry, romance has little in common with what is commonly thought of as romantic.
Romanticism was generally a reaction to the Enlightenment and continues to exert an influence on Western ideas and thoughts. The poetry of the Romantic era glorifies the individual; the poet becomes a prophet or moral leader who gives voice to the common man and to nature. Rather than adhering to conventional forms, Romantic-era poetry created new modes of expression and a dynamic language for articulating how a personal experience becomes representative of all human experience.
Nature is a substantial presence in romantic poetry, serving as both teacher and companion. Poets regarded their art as a mediation between humanity and nature and staged their own human dramas. The romantic wanderer and indirectly the reader would learn their place in the universe by traveling through the dark spaces of nature and the exotic lands of dreams. The mysterious, the monstrous and the strange are all poetic predilections of the Romantic era.
Generally the poetry of the Romantic era emphasized intuition and imagination over reason, everyday language over inscrutable poetic form, and the pastoral over the urban. Imagination is the gateway to transcendence and the poet filters powerful emotions and emotional responses, translating them into an accessible poetic form. The possibly extreme idealism of Romantic era poetry characterized by the pursuit of immortality, perfection and pure love often conflicted with the realities of everyday life.
Some of the best known poets of the Romantic era include William Wordsworth, Robert Burns and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow are representative American Romantic poets. The movement also included such accomplished female poets as Mary Shelley, Mary Robinson and Charlotte Turner Smith.
Romanticism as a movement lasted well into the 20th century and its ideals and themes in poetry have yet to die out completely. Aspects of Romanticism can be found in many later movements, including Surrealism and French Symbolism. Some literary theorists have begun to question the Romantic perception of the poet as an individual genius and creator. Instead, they argue that a poem is part of a web or archive or other text, and that the poet is part of a collective of voices limited by the boundaries of language.
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