Features of Romanticism

Characteristics of romantic age

1. Umm-e-Rooman Yaqoob
Roll # 3
B.S (English) 5
th
Semester
“ Characteristics of Romantic age ”

Literary critics consider 1798, the year when Wordsworth and Coleridge published their "Lyrical Ballads,"
to mark the beginning of the English Romantic Movement. However, its actual beginnings date back to
the poetry of Gray, Collins, Blake and Burns who are regaded as 'Transition Poets' who lived and wrote
at the end of the Neo-Classical Age. Critical opinion is divided as to when the Romantic Movement
actually came to an end; infact, some critics consider the Victorian age to be a continuation of the
Romantic Age and that the English Romantic Age extended till the beginning of the Modern Age in
the twentieth century. The characteristic features of English Romantic poetry are:
1. Love and worship of Nature and dislike for the urban life.
2. Love for the Medieval Age.
3. Love for the supernatural and the mystical.
4. Poetry came to be regarded as the spontaneous expression of the poet's own subjective feelings
and did not conform to the poetic conventions of classical doctrines.
1. 5.Completely abandoned the 'Heroic Couplet' and substituted it with simpler verse forms like
the ballads which belonged to the English rural Folk. In fact the 'Ballad Revival' is said to have
sparked off the English Romantic Movememnt.
5. The 'poetic diction' of the Neo-Classical Age was completely done away with and the language
of the ordinary people became the language of Romantic poetry.
6. The subjects of Romantic poetry were often ordinary people:"The Idiot Boy."

The Romantic movement in English poetry is often associated with a number of typical characteristics,
and many of these characteristics appear in William Wordsworth’s The Prelude and in Samuel Taylor
Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” and Dejection: An Ode.” Among the typical Romantic traits that appear in all
three poems are the following:
1. An emphasis on humanity’s relationship with nature.
2. A emphasis on the frequent beauty of nature.
3. An emphasis on nature’s beneficent influence on humanity.
4. An emphasis on strong personal emotion.

2. The opening lines of Book I of Wordsworth’s The Prelude reveal a number of these common features of
English Romanticism:
O there is a blessing in the gentle breeze,
A visitant that, while he fans my cheek,
Doth seem half-conscious of the joy he brings
From the green fields, and from yon azure sky.

Features of Romanticism:

Literature was the first branch of art to be influenced by the waves of Romanticism, although the
concepts remain the same in all the art forms. Let us look at some of the characteristics which
influenced the Romantics.

Love of Nature:
The Romantics greatly emphasized the importance of nature and the primal feelings of awe,
apprehension and horror felt by man on approaching the sublimeness of it. This was mainly because of
the industrial revolution, which had shifted life from the peaceful, serene countryside towards the
chaotic cities, transforming man's natural order. Nature was not only appreciated for its visual beauty,
but also revered for its ability to help the urban man find his true identity.

Emotions Vs. Rationality:
Unlike the age of Enlightenment, which focused on rationality and intellect, Romanticism placed human
emotions, feelings, instinct and intuition above everything else. While the poets in the era of rationality
adhered to the prevalent rules and regulations while selecting a subject and writing about it, the
Romantic writers trusted their emotions and feelings to create poetry. This belief can be confirmed from
the definition of poetry by William Wordsworth, where he says that poetry is the spontaneous overflow
of powerful feelings. The emphasis on emotions also spread to the music created in that period, and can
be observed in the compositions made by musicians like Weber, Beethoven, Schumann, etc. Beethoven
played an important role in the transition of Western music from the classical to the Romantic age.

Artist, the Creator:
As the Romantic period emphasized on human emotions, the position of the artist or the poet also
gained supremacy. In the earlier times, the artist was seen as a person who imitated the external world
through his art. However, this definition was mooted in the Romantic era and the poet or the painter
was seen as a creator of something which reflected his individuality and emotions. The Romantic
perception of the artist as the creator is best encapsulated by Caspar David Friedrich, who remarked
that "the artist's feeling is his law". It was also the first time that the poems written in the first person
were being accepted, as the poetic persona became one with the voice of the poet.

3. Nationalism:
The Romantics borrowed heavily from the folklore and the popular local art. During the earlier eras,
literature and art were considered to belong to the high-class educated people, and the lower classes
were not considered fit to enjoy them. Also, the language used in these works used to be highly lyrical,
which was totally different from what was spoken by people. However, Romantic artists took no shame
from being influenced by the folklore that had been created by the masses or the common people, and
not by the literary works that were popular only among the higher echelons of the society. Apart from
poetry, adopting folk tunes and ballads was one of the very important characteristics of Romantic music.
As the Romantics became interested and focused upon developing the folklore, culture, language,
customs and traditions of their own country, they developed a sense of Nationalism which reflected in
their works. Also, the language used in Romantic poems was simple and easy to understand by the
masses.

Exoticism:
Along with Nationalism, the Romantics developed the love of the exotic. Hence, far off and mysterious
locations were depicted in many of the artistic works from that period. Though this was not exactly
apposite to the Romantic ideal of Nationalism, separate factions were never formed. Exoticism is also
one of the most prominent characteristics in art, along with sentimentality and spirituality.

Supernatural:
Another characteristic of this movement is the belief in the supernatural. The Romantics were
interested in the supernatural and included it in their works. Gothic fiction emerged as a branch of
Romanticism after Horace Walpole's 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto. This fascination for the
mysterious and the unreal also led to the development of Gothic romance, which became popular
during this period. Supernatural elements can also be seen in Coleridge's Kubla Khan', The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner and Keats' La Belle Dame Sans Merci.

As no Romantic artist followed any strict set of rules or regulations, it is difficult to define the
characteristics of this movement accurately. Nevertheless, some of these characteristics are reflected in
the works of that period. Though many writers and critics have called this movement "irrational", it
cannot be denied that it was an honest attempt to portray the world, especially the intricacies of the
human nature, in a paradigm-shifting way.