Characteristics Of Romanticism In Literature

“Romanticism” is a term used to describe the artistic and intellectual movement which was produced in Europe during the late 18th and early19th centuries. This movement was characterized by its individualist postulates and its independence in front of the classic rules. In literature, Romanticism appeared at the end of 18th century in The most important Romantic English poets are Lord Byron, Shelley, Keats, William Blake and William Wordsworth, about whom we are going to talk in this essay. In their poems they display many characteristics of Romanticism, such An emphasis on the emotions, I mean, an emotional and intuitive way of understanding the world. They explore the relationship between nature and human life. A stress on the importance

Social and political idealism Love, which was one of the most important values for the Romantics. They proclaimed that the most important things are freedom, brotherhood and nature. William Wordsworth, English Poet Laureate from 1843 to 1850, is often credited with discovering the Romantic child. In presenting this figure in his poetry, Wordsworth created a cult of childhood during the Romantic era, which continued well into the Victorian period and beyond. Wordsworth’s conception of childhood is often thought to be a historical and apolitical, especially in contrast with William Blake's deeply contextualized presentation of children in his poetry. The Wordsworth an child most often acts as a child of nature. For Wordsworth, Nature is both the best parent and the best possible teacher for a child. Wordsworth's autobiographical Prelude, inspired by Rousseau's Emile, focuses on the development of the poet largely through his interaction with Nature beginning in childhood. There is little need for a human instructor when a child can go out into Nature and be taught by imagination and

In "My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold" he states "The Child is father of the Man." Childhood, ironically, begets the adult because childhood becomes the psychological and emotional foundation for adulthood. Yet, as adults we can never fully re-enter the psychological state of our childhood. In fact, the adult is forever exiled from the innocence of childhood. The perspective of the child is incredibly important for the adult but remains strangely inaccessible. Wordsworth's Intimations of Immortality" provides an example of the proximity and estrangement which he observes in the stages of adulthood and childhood. The adult speaker bemoans that "The things which I have seen I now can see no more." Yet, he has visions of a "Child of Joy" who enables him to "hear, I hear, with joy I hear!" However, once the vision ends the speaker is left asking "Whither is fled the visionary gleam? Where is it now, the glory and the dream?" The child is present but simultaneously unreachable for the speaker. In denying the child’s history, Jerome Mc Gann argues that Wordsworth depoliticizes the child by making him or her universal, rather than specific to the historical moment in which he is writing. The Wordsworth an child is the product of the adult's nostalgia and memory as much as he or she is the product of nature. He child is the father of man". He wants to say that present is the outcome of