Characteristics of The Romantic Age

Characteristics of the Romantic Age & Romantic Literature
1. Individuality/Democracy/Personal Freedom
2. Spiritual/Supernatural Elements
3. Nature as a Teacher
4. Interest in Past History/Ancient Greek and Roman Elements
5. Celebration of the Simple Life
6. Interest in the Rustic/Pastoral Life
7. Interest in Folk Traditions
8. Use of Common Language
9. Use of Common Subjects
10. One Sided/Opinionated
11. Idealized Women
12. Frequent Use of Personification
13. Examination of the Poet's Inner Feelings
Background
Romanticism is the name given to a dominant movement in literature and the other arts particularly
music and painting in the the period from the 1770s to the mid-nineteenth century:
It is regarded as having transformed artistic styles and practices

Like many other terms applied to movements in the arts, the word covers a wide and varied
range of artists and practices
It is a retrospective term, applied by later literary, art and musical historians. None of the artists
we refer to as Romantics would have so described themselves
It was a European phenomenon, particularly powerful in Britain, France and Germany, but also
affecting countries such as Italy, Spain and Poland. There was also, to some extent, an American
version of the movement.
Reaction to earlier age

Like many other literary movements, it developed in reaction to the dominant style of the preceding
period:
The eighteenth century is often described by literary historians as the Augustan Age because it
sought to emulate the culture of the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus(27 BCE 14 CE)
Classical standards of order, harmony, proportion and objectivity were preferred the period
saw a revival of interest in classical architecture, for instance
In literature, Greek and Roman authors were taken as models and many eighteenth century
writers either translated or produced imitations of poetry in classical forms
In its early years, Romanticism was associated with radical and revolutionary political
ideologies, again in reaction against the generally conservative mood of European society.
Main features
Central features of Romanticism include:
An emphasis on emotional and imaginative spontaneity

The importance of self-expression and individual feeling. Romantic poetry is one of the heart
and the emotions, exploring the truth of the imagination' rather than scientific truth. The I' voice is
central; it is the poet's perceptions and feelings that matter.
An almost religious response to nature. They were concerned that Nature should not just be
seen scientifically but as a living force, either made by a Creator, or as in some way divine, to be
neglected at humankind's peril. Some of them were no longer Christian in their beliefs. Shelley
was an atheist, and for a while Wordsworth was a pantheist (the belief that god is in everything).
Much of their poetry celebrated the beauty of nature, or protested the ugliness of the growing
industrialization of the century: the machines, factories, slum conditions, pollution and so on.
A capacity for wonder and consequently a reverence for the freshness and innocence of
the vision of childhood.
Emphasis on the imagination as a positive and creative faculty
An interest in primitive' forms of art for instance in the work of early poets (bards), in ancient
ballads and folksongs. Some of the Romantics turned back to past times to find inspiration, either
to the medieval period, or to Greek and Roman mythology.
An interest in and concern for the outcasts of society: tramps, beggars, obsessive characters
and the poor and disregarded are especially evident in Romantic poetry
An idea of the poet as a visionary figure, with an important role to play as prophet (in both
political and religious terms).
Who were the Romantics?

Some authors have been regarded as pre-Romantic:
William Blake (1757-1827) a visionary poet who was also an artist and engraver, with a particular
interest in childhood and a strong hatred of mechanical reason and industrialization;
Robert Burns (1759-1796) who worked as a ploughman and farm labourer but who had received
a good education and was interested in early Scots ballads and folk-song;
Walter Scott (1771-1832), another Scot, who developed his interest in old tales of the Border and
early European poetry into a career as poet and novelist.
The first generation of Romantics is also known as the Lake Poets because of their attachment to the
Lake District in the north-west of England:
William Wordsworth (1770-1850) who came from the Lake District and was the leading poet of
the group, whose work was especially associated with the centrality of the self and the love of
nature;
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) was Wordsworth's closest colleague and collaborator, a
powerful intellectual whose work was often influenced by contemporary ideas about science and
philosophy;
Robert Southey (1774-1843), a prolific writer of poetry and prose who settled in the Lake District
and became Poet Laureate in 1813; his work was later mocked by Byron;
Charles Lamb (1775-1834) was a poet but is best-known for his essays and literary criticism; a
Londoner, he was especially close to Coleridge;
Thomas de Quincey (1785-1859) the youngest member of the group, best known as an essayist
and critic, who wrote a series of memories of the Lake Poets.
The second generation of Romantic poets included:
George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824);

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) was one of the leading poets;
John Keats (1795-1821) was a London poet, especially known for his odes and sonnets and for
his letters, which contain many reflections on poetry and the work of the imagination.
The poets named so far are those who, for many years, dominated the Romantic canon that group of
writers whose works were most commonly republished, read, anthologised, written about and taught in
schools, colleges and universities.
More recently, however, a revised Romantic canon has begun to emerge, which lays more emphasis
on women, working-class and politically radical writers of the period:
Work by these writers can be found in two anthologies, both with useful introductions discussing
the justification for extending the canon in this way:
o Duncan Wu. Romanticism: an Anthology. 3rd edition. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005;
o
Jerome J. McGann. The New Oxford Book of Romantic Period Verse. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1993.

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Characteristics of The Romantic Age

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Characteristics of the Romantic Age & Romantic Literature

It is regarded as having transformed artistic styles and practices

Reaction to earlier age

An emphasis on emotional and imaginative spontaneity

Emphasis on the imagination as a positive and creative faculty

Who were the Romantics?

The second generation of Romantic poets included:

George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824);

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