Romanticism Notes

ENGL 1514, ENGLISH ROMANTICISM NOTES
Summary The Romantic period in English literature began in the late 1700s
and lasted through the mid-1800s. Romanticism focuses on the emotional side
of human nature, individualism, the beauty of the natural world and the
simplicity of common people. Romantic authors value sentimental, heartfelt
feelings and emotional experiences over historical and scientific facts.
Romanticism was a movement in art and literature in the eighteenth and

nineteenth centuries in revolt against the Neoclassicism of the previous
centuries...The German poet Friedrich Schlegel, who is given credit for first
using the term romantic to describe literature, defined it as "literature
depicting emotional matter in an imaginative form." This is as accurate a
general definition as can be accomplished, although Victor Hugo's phrase
"liberalism in literature" is also apt. Imagination, emotion, and freedom are
certainly the focal points of romanticism. Any list of particular characteristics of
the literature of romanticism includes subjectivity and an emphasis on
individualism; spontaneity; freedom from rules; solitary life rather than life in
society; the beliefs that imagination is superior to reason and devotion to
beauty; love of and worship of nature; and fascination with the past, especially
the myths and mysticism of the middle ages.
English poets: William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron,
Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats
The American Scholar A.O. Lovejoy once observed that the word 'romantic' has
come to mean so many things that, by itself, it means nothing at all...The
variety of its actual and possible meanings and connotations reflect the
complexity and multiplicity of European romanticism. In The Decline and Fall of
the Romantic Ideal (1948) F.L. Lucas counted 11,396 definitions of
'romanticism'. In Classic, Romantic and Modern (1961) Barzun cites examples
of synonymous usage for romantic which show that it is perhaps the most
remarkable example of a term which can mean many things according to
personal and individual needs.
The word romantic (ism) has a complex and interesting history. In the Middle
Ages 'romance' denoted the new vernacular languages derived from Latin - in
contradistinction to Latin itself, which was the language of
learning. Enromancier, romancar, romanz meant to compose or translate
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books in the vernacular. The work produced was then
called romanz, roman, romanzo and romance. A roman or romant came to be
known as an imaginative work and a 'courtly romance'. The terms also signified
a 'popular book'. There are early suggestions that it was something new,
different, divergent. By the 17th c. in Britain and France, 'romance' has acquired
the derogatory connotations of fanciful, bizarre, exaggerated, chimerical. In
France a distinction was made between romanesque (also derogatory)
and romantique (which meant 'tender', 'gentle', 'sentimental' and 'sad'). It was
used in the English form in these latter senses in the 18th c. In Germany the
word romantisch was used in the 17th c. in the French sense of romanesque,
and then, increasingly from the middle of the 18th c., in the English sense of
'gentle', 'melancholy'.
Many hold to the theory that it was in Britain that the romantic movement
really started. At any rate, quite early in the 18th c. one can discern a definite
shift in sensibility and feeling, particularly in relation to the natural order and
Nature. This, of course, is hindsight. When we read Keats, Coleridge and
Wordsworth, for instance, we gradually become aware that many of their
sentiments and responses are foreshadowed by what has been described as a
'pre-romantic sensibility'.
In 1762 Jean-Jacques Rousseau declared in The Social Contract: ‘Man is born
free, and everywhere he is in chains.’ During the Romantic period major
transitions took place in society, as dissatisfied intellectuals and artists
challenged the Establishment. In England, the Romantic poets were at the very
heart of this movement. They were inspired by a desire for liberty, and they
denounced the exploitation of the poor. There was an emphasis on the
importance of the individual; a conviction that people should follow ideals
rather than imposed conventions and rules. The Romantics renounced the
rationalism and order associated with the preceding Enlightenment era,
stressing the importance of expressing authentic personal feelings. They had a
real sense of responsibility to their fellow men: they felt it was their duty to
use their poetry to inform and inspire others, and to change society.
Revolution
When reference is made to Romantic verse, the poets who generally spring to
mind are William Blake (1757-1827), William Wordsworth (1770-1850), Samuel
Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), George Gordon, 6th Lord Byron (1788-
1824), Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) and John Keats (1795-1821). These
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writers had an intuitive feeling that they were ‘chosen’ to guide others through
the tempestuous period of change.
This was a time of physical confrontation; of violent rebellion in parts of
Europe and the New World. Conscious of anarchy across the English Channel,
the British government feared similar outbreaks. The early Romantic poets
tended to be supporters of the French Revolution, hoping that it would bring
about political change; however, the bloody Reign of Terror shocked them
profoundly and affected their views. In his youth William Wordsworth was
drawn to the Republican cause in France, until he gradually became
disenchanted with the Revolutionaries.
The imagination
The Romantics were not in agreement about everything they said and did: far
from it! Nevertheless, certain key ideas dominated their writings. They
genuinely thought that they were prophetic figures who could interpret reality.
The Romantics highlighted the healing power of the imagination, because they
truly believed that it could enable people to transcend their troubles and their
circumstances. Their creative talents could illuminate and transform the world
into a coherent vision, to regenerate mankind spiritually. In A Defence of
Poetry (1821), Shelley elevated the status of poets: ‘They measure the
circumference and sound the depths of human nature with a comprehensive
and all-penetrating spirit…’. He declared that ‘Poets are the unacknowledged
legislators of the world’. This might sound somewhat pretentious, but it serves
to convey the faith the Romantics had in their poetry.
The marginalised and oppressed
Wordsworth was concerned about the elitism of earlier poets, whose
highbrow language and subject matter were neither readily accessible nor
particularly relevant to ordinary people. He maintained that poetry should be
democratic; that it should be composed in ‘the language really spoken by men’
(Preface to Lyrical Ballads [1802]). For this reason, he tried to give a voice to
those who tended to be marginalised and oppressed by society: the rural poor;
discharged soldiers; ‘fallen’ women; the insane; and children.
Blake was radical in his political views, frequently addressing social issues in his
poems and expressing his concerns about the monarchy and the church. His
poem ‘London’ draws attention to the suffering of chimney-sweeps, soldiers
and prostitutes.
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Children, nature and the sublime
For the world to be regenerated, the Romantics said that it was necessary to
start all over again with a childlike perspective. They believed that children
were special because they were innocent and uncorrupted, enjoying a precious
affinity with nature. Romantic verse was suffused with reverence for the
natural world. In Coleridge’s ‘Frost at Midnight’ (1798) the poet hailed nature
as the ‘Great universal Teacher!’ Recalling his unhappy times at Christ’s
Hospital School in London, he explained his aspirations for his son, Hartley,
who would have the freedom to enjoy his childhood and appreciate his
surroundings. The Romantics were inspired by the environment, and
encouraged people to venture into new territories – both literally and
metaphorically. In their writings they made the world seem a place with
infinite, unlimited potential.
A key idea in Romantic poetry is the concept of the sublime. This term conveys
the feelings people experience when they see awesome landscapes, or find
themselves in extreme situations which elicit both fear and admiration. For
example, Shelley described his reaction to stunning, overwhelming scenery in
the poem ‘Mont Blanc’ (1816).

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ENGL 1514, ENGLISH ROMANTICISM NOTES

Romanticism was a movement in art and literature in the eighteenth and

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