Romantic poetry

• 1. Origins And Opposition

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  The year 1800 marked a turning point when William Wordsworth published the second edition of Lyrical Ballads with a new Preface. This document declared poetry to be the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings taking origin in emotion recollected in tranquility. The movement arose as a deliberate rebellion against Neoclassical ideas that dominated eighteenth-century Europe. Romantic poets rejected the strict conventions of epics, odes, satires, elegies, and epistles that defined earlier styles. They sought to boil up serious contemplation over human interaction with their environment into poetic form. Samuel Taylor Coleridge later described art as the mediatress between nature and man in his essay On Poesy or Art delivered as a lecture in 1818. The group included John Keats, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and William Blake who wrote poetry meant to filter natural emotion through the human mind. Critics noted the movement was always marked by strong reaction and protest against the bondage of rule and custom. This stance applied equally to science, theology, and literature where free human spirit faced constraints.

• 2. Defining The Sublime

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  Edmund Burke published a treatise on the sublime in 1757 establishing it as one of the most important concepts in Romantic poetry. The literary concept refers to language and description that excites thoughts and emotions beyond ordinary experience. Grandeur often associates with the idea but the sublime may also refer to the grotesque or other extraordinary experiences taking us beyond ourselves. Immanuel Kant took up the idea alongside Romantic poets including especially William Wordsworth. The term describes use of language that triggers feelings exceeding normal perception boundaries. It became central to how poets like Wordsworth approached nature as a living thing teacher god and everything. These feelings developed fully in Wordsworth's epic poem The Prelude. The concept helped define what a real poet should look like in Western cultural context. An idealized statue of Czech man Karel Hynek Mácha represents him as slim tender perhaps unhealthy boy though he had reality a strong robust muscular body. He served as head literal of the Romantic Poetry Age or Age of Romantic Poetry. The movement valued wit humor beauty unlike English seriousness while German variety notably embraced these traits.

• 3. National Variations

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  German Romanticism emerged relatively late coinciding with Weimar Classicism from 1772 to 1805. Sturm und Drang literally Storm and Drive took place from late 1760s to early 1780s giving free expression to individual subjectivity extremes of emotion. Friedrich Maximilian Klinger's play Sturm und Drang first performed in 1777 named the period. Johann Georg Hamann considered ideologue of Sturm und Drang with Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz H. L. Wagner also significant figures. Jena Romanticism represented by group centered in Jena from about 1798 to 1804 included Friedrich Schlegel August Wilhelm Schlegel Novalis Ludwig Tieck. Heidelberg became center of Romantik epoch after Jena phase featuring poets Joseph von Eichendorff Johann Joseph von Görres Ludwig Achim von Arnim Clemens Brentano. Poland began its Romantic period around 1820 coinciding publication Adam Mickiewicz Ballads and Romances 1822 ending suppression Polish-Lithuanian January 1863 Uprising against Russian Empire 1864. Notable Polish romantic poets include Juliusz Słowacki Cyprian Kamil Norwid Zygmunt Krasiński Tymon Zaborowski Antoni Malczewski Józef Bohdan Zaleski. Russia Golden Era featured Vasily Zhukovsky Alexander Pushkin Mikhail Lermontov Yevgeny Baratynsky Konstantin Batyushkov Nikolay Nekrasov Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy Fyodor Tyutchev Afanasy Fet.

• 4. American Transcendentalism

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  Transcendentalism developed late 1820s 1830s eastern United States rooted English German Romanticism Biblical criticism Herder Schleiermacher skepticism Hume transcendental philosophy Immanuel Kant German Idealism. Walt Whitman major work Leaves of Grass first published 1855 influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson Transcendentalist movement offshoot Romanticism. His poetry praised nature individual human role within it elevating human form mind worthy poetic praise. Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1849 best known poetry short stories widely regarded central figure Romanticism United States American literature whole strongly disliked transcendentalism. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807-1882 most popular poet his day one first American celebrities popular Europe reported 10,000 copies The Courtship Miles Standish sold London single day. Longfellow popularity rapidly declined beginning shortly death into twentieth century academics began appreciate poets like Walt Whitman Edwin Arlington Robinson Robert Frost. Literary scholar Kermit Vanderbilt noted increasingly rare scholar braves ridicule justify art Longfellow popular rhymings. More recently essay Dana Gioia spearheaded revival readership scholarly interest life poetry Longfellow. Elements Romanticism many later works American poetry influence Whitman evident Langston Hughes E. E. Cummings echoes Transcendentalism poems nature Robert Frost Carl Sandburg Gary Snyder strains Romantic individualism writing Frank O'Hara Sylvia Plath Adrienne Rich Beat Generation.

• 5. Legacy And Reception

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  Romantic poetry considered way better life Heidi Thomson mentioned article Why Romantic Poetry Still Matters more literate articulate chances survival citizens inhabitants earth. French literature first half century dominated Romanticism associated Victor Hugo Alexandre Dumas père François-René de Chateaubriand Alphonse de Lamartine Gérard de Nerval Charles Nodier Alfred de Musset Théophile Gautier Alfred de Vigny. Their influence felt latter half nineteenth century diverse literary developments realism symbolism fin de siècle decadent movement. Spanish leading Romantic poets Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer Manuel José Quintana José Zorrilla Rosalía de Castro Galician Spanish José de Espronceda. Catalonia Romantic movement major trigger Catalan renaissance Renaixença gradually bring back prestige Catalan language literature decadence since 15th-century Golden Age Jacint Verdaguer leading figure poetry Miquel Costa i Llobera wrote romantic poem Pine Formentor one renowned works Catalan poetry. Swedish literature Romantic period between 1809 and 1830 called Golden Age influenced German literature. Period started around several periodicals published criticized literature eighteenth century important periodical Iduna published Gothic Society 1811 presented romanticized version Gothicismus 17th-century cultural movement Sweden centered belief glory Swedish Geats Goths early nineteenth-century Romantic nationalist version emphasized Vikings heroic figures.