INTRODUCTION:Romanticism is an English literary movement which flourished and bloomed
with flying colors and spread its fragrance in the field of English poetry in
the beginning of the 19th century. It began with the publication of
‘Lyrical Ballads’ in 1798. It is a collection of fantastic and touching lyrics
by William Wordsworth and S. T. Coleridge which brought about a revolution in
English poetry. It was a reaction against the Neo-Classical poetry of the 18th
century. It had its origin in the Elizabethan age of the 16th
century.
MEANING
OF ROMANTICISM:
Romanticism is a term
which cannot be defined accurately. Hundreds of critics have defined it in various
ways. An English critic, F. L. Lucas has
counted 11,396 definitions of Romanticism. Let’s have a look at some of the
most popular definitions of Romanticism.
1.C. H. Herford opines,
"Romanticism is the extra ordinary development of imaginative
sensibility"
2.Walter Pater avers, "Romanticism is
the addition of strangeness to beauty."
3.Watts Dunton says, "Romanticism is
the Renaissance of wonder."
4.But the most
convincing definition of Romanticism is given by an eminent critic. He writes, "One poet is romantic
because he falls in love; another romantic because he sees a ghost; another
romantic because he hears a cuckoo; another Romantic because he is reconciled
to the church."
5.John Keats rightly
comments, "If poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a
tree, it had better not come at all."
In this way, we can
gather from all above definitions that Romanticism involves imagination,
strange beauty, supernatural elements, love for nature, love for past, lyricism
etc.
FEATURES OF ROMANTICISM:
In order to
understand this movement, we must take a glance at some of the important
characteristics of Romanticism. They are as under:
1.Break from Classicism:Wordsworth
and Coleridge’s poetry was in sharp contrast to the Neo-Classical poetry of the
18th century. They reacted against all norms and rules of writing
poetry and they discarded the reason, intellectualism and realism from poetry.
They wanted to free poetry from the bondages of classicism. W. J. Long rightly
remarks in this regard, “The Romantic movement is marked by a strong reaction and
protest against the bondages of rules and customs.”
2.Love for Nature: Neo-Classical poets
like Alexander Pope loved the artificial life of the urban areas, but
Wordsworth, Keats and Shelley loved to present the beauty of nature in their
lyrics. They found physical as well as spiritual side of beauty of nature in
the wild flowers and green fields. Wordsworth was so much in love with nature
that he wrote a host of nature poems and was hailed by the critics as the ‘Poet
of Nature’. His nature poems like ‘Daffodils’, ‘Education of Nature’, ‘Rainbow’
etc have made perpetual place in the hearts of the lovers of English poetry.
3.Love for Country Life: When
one reads the English poetry of the Neo-Classical age, one finds the
description of the clubs and coffee houses. It mainly deals with the economic
and aristocratic life of the people. But the followers of Romanticism hated
this and presented the life of the rustic people. Shelley and Keats enjoyed
presenting the nature and country life in their poetry. This was the result of
the French Revolution where the farmers revolted against the aristocrats and
royal people. In this way, Romanticism brings about a new era of pastoral poems
in English literature.
4.Escape to the Past/Middle Ages: Coleridge
and Keats escaped to the past and middle ages where they found beauty and joy
to enrich their souls. They found strange blending of beauty and curiosity in
past. Keats’ ‘Ode to a Grecian Urn’ is a famous example of his love for the
past. Walter Pater rightly commented, “The essential elements of the romantic
spirit are curiosity and love of beauty and they searched for them in the
middle ages.”
5.Love for Freedom: The spirit of
freedom and independence became the passion of the people in England as the
farmers participated in the French Revolution. The same spirit is found in
English poetry too during the period of Romanticism. Shelley became the poet of
liberty. The romantic poets opposed the inhuman approach and immorality of the
18th century. Shelley’s ‘Prometheus Unbound’ gives expression to his
deep love for mankind and liberty. He sympathized the poor and rustic people
and raised his voice against the inhuman aristocracy.
6.Dominance of Imagination & Emotions: As we noted earlier, Romanticism
rejected the realism and reason of the 18th century. The poetry of
Romanticism is full of imagination and emotions. Wordsworth and Coleridge
advocated for this in their poetry. Coleridge wrote about the importance of
secondary imagination and Wordsworth too spoke about the need of emotions when
he defined poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.”
7.Love for Supernatural:Coleridge,
Shelley and Keats introduced supernatural elements in their poetry. It is said
that Coleridge used to take opium and used to write his poems in the
intoxicated state of mind. His most poems like ‘Kubla Khan’, ‘Christabel’, ‘The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ etc. are full of supernaturalism. That is why the
critics call him the ‘Poet of Supernatural’.
8.Subjectivity: Inner feelings and
personal experiences of the poets are expressed in romantic poetry. They
subjective by nature. The words like “I”, “My”, “Me” etc abound in romantic
poetry. For example, Wordsworth poem begins, “I wandered lonely as a cloud.” or “My heart leaps up when
I behold a beautiful rainbow in the sky.”
9.Lyricism: The lyrics of Romanticism are very short, full
of music, rhythm and imagination. Written mostly in iambic pentameter lines,
they focus on a single idea and express the subjective experiences of the
poets.
MAJOR FOLLOWERS OF
ROMANTICISM:Wordsworth and
Coleridge are known as the pioneers of Neo-Romanticism. James Thomson is
considered as the precursor of Romanticism. The poets like P. B. Shelley, John
Keats, Lord Byron and the essayists like William Blake and Charles Lamb are the
great exponents of Romanticism.
CONCLUSION: To sum up, we may say that Romanticism
was a movement of English poetry which had its roots in Elizabethan age
(Shakespeare and Spenser) and it flourished as Neo-Romanticism in the beginning
of the 19th century. Romanticism revolted against the
Neo-Classicism. The romantic poets loved freedom from rules, loved past, loved
nature and wrote highly emotional and imaginative poetry which was full of
lyrical qualities. Let’s conclude with the words of W. J. Long:
“The poetry of romantic
age is characterized by the protest against rules, return to nature, interest
in common man, love for the poor and escape to the past and touch of
subjectivity in poetry. They got their inspiration not from Dryden and Pope but
from Shakespeare, Spenser and Milton.”
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