Wordsworth and Coleridge

• Impact on Romantic Poetry 

Introduction 

           

           Romantic poetry, a literary movement from the late 18th to mid-19th century, was characterized by an emphasis on emotion, nature, and individual expression. It had a profound impact on literature, influencing subsequent generations and shaping the way poets approached their craft. Romantic poets, such as Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Shelley, celebrated individualism and the beauty of the natural world, challenging the conventions of the time. This movement laid the foundation for modern poetry and continues to inspire poets today.

Impact on Romantic Poetry

       Studying Romantic poetry can improve our empathy and resilience, our sense of categorization and understanding, our ability to accommodate uncertainty, and our powers of decision-making.

      Romanticism in poetry can be defined as the development of individualism and an embrace of the natural world in poetic form. Many Romantic poets revered idealism, emotional passion, and mysticism in their works. Romanticism  in the West is a poetic movement that lasted through the late 18th and early 19th centuries and arose in response to the Enlightenment era, a period of rationalism and logic. From the Enlightenment era came Neoclassical poetry, or poetry that prioritizes reason and intellect over imagination and imitates classical poetic styles. Romantic poetry challenges the idea that reason alone can lead to human fulfillment and embraces idealism, physical and emotional passion, individualism, reverence for nature, and the supernatural in revolt against Enlightenment ideals that, for Romantic poets, were too limiting. Examples of romantic poets include William Wordsworth, john keats.

     Although it is hard to determine the starting date of Romanticism, scholars agree that it began during the late 1700s. At its core, Romanticism is the defiance of the establishment and the buttressing of individualism. Intellectuals advocated for individuals to follow ideals instead of established conventions. The embracing of individual liberty became a major poetic theme during the Romantic period. Major poets who ascribed to Romantic principles in their poetry were William Blake, Lord Byron, and William Wordsworth.Furthermore, a large emphasis was placed on the imagination, which was in response to the neoclassic tradition, a movement that favored science and reason.

    The characteristics of Romantic poetry are derived from the social climate and prevailing modes of thought between roughly 1798 and 1837. Poems of this era will often address social issues like religion, use vernacular language instead of the largely inaccessible Latin or Greek, idealize childhood, show an appreciation and reverence for nature, and heavily denote themes relating to individualism and imagination.

  

Social Issues in Romantic Poetry

During the time of Romantic period poetry, rebellion was springing up all across Europe. The lower classes were revolting against terrible living and working conditions, and intellectuals and artists were becoming dissatisfied with standards and expectations put in place by the elite. Particularly, many early Romantic poets were enchanted by the French Revolution and adopted its ideals, but with the Bloody Reign of Terror that followed, they became more cautious. Still, Romantic poets were revolutionaries. In addition to the challenges facing the lower classes, monarchy and religion were highly debated subjects. The French Revolution advocated for complete freedom from social authority, and Romantic poets were inspired by this. The establishment of the church and its deeply rooted political ties was subject to constant critique by Romantic poets, who often advocated for a form of pantheism or atheism, although most didn't land confidently on any one set of beliefs. The monarchy was also under attack as an inferior mode of government, one in which the people were not being represented, and Romantic poets consistently challenged these ideas with satire and particularly irony, or the contrast between how things seem and how they really are. An example of poets tackling these issues is the poem ''London'' by William Blake, excerpted below:

How the Chimney-sweepers cry

Every blackning Church appalls,

And the hapless Soldiers sigh

Runs in blood down Palace walls .

Conclusion 

    Revolution changed the lives of virtually everyone in the nation and even continent because of its drastic and immediate shift in social reformation, it greatly influenced many writers at the time. Hancock writes, "There is no need to recount here in detail how the French Revolution, at the close of the last century, was the great stimulus to the intellectual and emotional life of the civilized world, how it began by inspiring all liberty-loving men with hope and joy."