The Basic Characteristics of Romanticism of Romantic Period in the British Literature
Romanticism period is in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, covering a range of developments in art, literature, music and philosophy (Forward, 2014). When it comes to the literature, it affected themes, poets, and many more. The most notable feature of the poetry of the Romantic era is the new role of individual thought and personal feeling. Feeling had begun to receive particular emphasis and is found in most of the Romantic definitions of poetry (ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA). During the Romantic period, significant changes occurred in the society, as dissatisfied intellectuals and artists challenged the Establishment. In England, the Romantic writers were at the very heart of this development. They were inspired by a desire for liberty, and they denounced the exploitation of the poor people. There was an emphasis on the significance of the individual; a conviction that people should follow ideals rather than imposed conventions and rules (Forward, 2014).
William Wordsworth is one of the founders of the Romantic Movement of the English literature. Wordsworth and Coleridge formed the beginning of the English Romantic Movement. Lyrical Ballads (1798, 1800) and The Tables Turned are poems written by the romantic poet William Wordsworth. The grouping together of the so-called Lake poets (Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey) with Scott, Byron, Keats, and Shelley as the romantic poets is late Victorian, as late as the middle 1880s. • The second generation of romantic poets included John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and George Gordon, Lord Byron. Other novelists of the period were Maria Edgeworth, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, and Thomas Love Peacock, the latter noted for his eccentric novels satirizing the romantics. In the British literature, romanticism period has some features and themes, also called the basic characteristics, and these characteristics will be shown in this essay. The features in general are:
Revolution
At that times, there were violent rebellion in parts of Europe and the New World. It also effected Britain, and with that, it affected British literature. William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, George Gordon, 6th Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats had a feeling that they were ‘chosen’ to guide others through the period of change (Forward, 2014).
The imagination
The writers thought that they were figures who could interpret reality. The Romantics featured the healing power of the creative mind. Their inventive gifts could enlighten and change the world into an intelligible vision (Forward, 2014). Another key feature of Romantic writing was its shift from the mimetic, or imitative, suspicions of the Neoclassical period to a new stress on imagination. Coleridge considered the imagination as the supreme poetic quality, a semi divine creative force that made the poet a godlike being (ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA).
The marginalized and oppressed
Wordsworth attempted to give a voice to the individuals who would in general be minimized and persecuted by society: the rural poor; discharged soldiers; ‘fallen’ women; the insane; and children. Blake was radical in his political perspectives, often addressing social issues in his poems and communicating his concerns about the monarchy and the church. His poem ‘London’ causes people to notice the suffering of chimney-sweeps, soldiers and prostitutes (Forward, 2014).
Children, nature and the sublime
Romantics believed that it was necessary to start from the very beginning again with a childlike perspective. They thought that children were special because they were innocent and uncorrupted. Coleridge’s ‘Frost at Midnight’ (1798) the poet saluted nature as the ‘Great universal Teacher!’. About sublime, Shelley described his reaction to stunning and overwhelming scenery in the poem ‘Mont Blanc’ (1816) (Forward, 2014).
To conclude, Romanticism period and the Romantics headed people and their art pieces with these themes and characteristics. Revolution and the era’s events shaped poet’s thoughts, and they showed it in their poems.
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REFERENCES
Forward, 2014. The Romantics. Retrieved from: https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-romantics
https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/k/keats-poems/about-the-romantic-period
