Romanticism In The Golden Age

Following the period of Enlightenment, one of the most influential forms of writing came about—Romanticism. Romanticism evolved from one of the four ages of poetry, and it highlights what is lost in the Enlightenment. The four ages are iron, gold, silver, and brass. The Iron Age marks the beginning of time along with the beginning of poetry. The poetry in this stage is oral and its function is to celebrate the accomplishments of the chief or war captain. Poets acted as historians during this age. The Golden Age, also known as the Renaissance era, focuses more on originality, and the poets serve to celebrate the founders and people of their society. The Silver Age, also the time of the Roman Empire, focuses more on the common life of people.

It has been defined by Friedrich Schegel in his book, Kritische Schriften, as “That is romantic which depicts emotional matter in imaginative form.” It has been defined as “Romantic poetry springs from our agony and our despair” by Charles Nodier. Romanticism can be described as “Classic art portrays the finite; romantic art also suggests the infinite” by Heinrich Heino. Victor Hugo, in his Preface to Hernani, describes romanticism in the terms “Romanticism, so often ill-defined is only liberalism in literature” (O’Cinneide). Thus, it is apparent that romanticism proves difficult to define. Romantic writers and poets emphasize many different themes in their works of poetry. These themes are nature with a focus on the sublime and landscape, childhood with an emphasis on innocence & experience along with education, centrality of emotion with an emphasis on spontaneity and resistance to reason, the supernatural, the fantastical, the exotic, political imagination, and individual consciousness with the artist as a genius and the poet as a hero (O’Cinneide). William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Maria Edgeworth are all famous writers from the Romantic era, who focus on innocence throughout their works. This innocence comes from a lack of life experience, and a great deal of value is placed upon this innocence. One does not know when one will lose his/her innocence, for this loss comes with different life circumstances. These authors describe how they find happiness and comfort in looking back at their own childhood innocence, and that of others, through their