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Ⅱ. Literary Overview
The 18th century was an Age of Reason. The poets
of this age worshipped the ancient writers such as Homer, Virgil, with their
whole heart. Born in the bed of glorious and splendid palace, the
neo-Classical poetry required elegant theme, ornate diction, refined
structure, and most important was the worship of reason. As the coming of
new century, the tide of liberal movement came one after another. The
reforming society called for a new literature, since the Muse, who was in
splendid decoration of classicism, was tired of the restraint now. This new
trend of literature was Romanticism. Romanticism, a term given by the later
literary historians, denotes most of the works composed during 1798, when
Wordsworth and Coleridge published their work Lyrical Ballads and 1832, when
all the important Romantic writers were dead or no longer productive.
Instead of regarding poetry as “ a mirror
to nature”, Romantic poets considered poetry as “ the spontaneous overflow
of powerful feelings”, which expresses the poet’s mind. Rather than in the
objective world, the Romantic poets were more interest in their own
feelings, thoughts, experiences of themselves, etc.—in a word is
imagination. In short, Romanticism is related to subjectivism instead of
objectivism, which relates to neo-Classicism.
When expressing their feelings, the Romantic poets
emphasis on spontaneousness, because, according to them, a work of art must
be original. Therefore, compared to neo-Classicists’ emphasis on “the head”,
Romanticists emphasize on “ the heart”—the instinct, intuition, feelings
that emerge from the heart.
Romantic poets highlighted imagination. That is
why they have a strong love for the remote, the unusual, the odd, the
supernatural, the mysterious, the splendid, the picturesque or the
illogical—all the singular things that require poet’s imagination.
The Romantic poets adored nature with a whole
heart. To the popular mind, the Romantic poetry has almost been considered
as the synonym of “nature poetry”—although it is a mistake. They read in
nature some mysterious force. According to their opinion, nature is part of
their life, which may share their feelings, and some poets even consider
nature as the revelation of God such as Wordsworth.
The Romantic Movement is characterized by the
humanitarian idealism. The Romantic poets get great interest in the life of
common people, they treat common people with a sense of universal
brotherhood love and greatly sympathy their suffering. They glorify the
commonplace and “choose incidents and situations from common life” as their
subjects. They draw the daily language of the common people into their
poetic works, which leads the simplicity as a distinctive feature of their
diction.
The Romantic period is also an age of radical
individualism. This period is marked by the strong reaction and protest
against the bondage of rules. They boldly experiment in their diction,
themes and forms. For instance, “the spontaneous overflow of feelings”
educates Romantic poets to use a freer verse form to outpour their own
feeling and emotions.
The theme of exile, isolation, a longing for the
infinite, seeking for an indefinable and inaccessible goal, can be easily
found in the Romantic poems. That means melancholy and loneliness are the
dominating note in the poems of the Romantic poets.
Most of the Romantic writers were the rebels of the
society and social tradition. The second generation interprets this feature
into the highest point.
However, since different writers, poems have different
characteristics, the features of Romanticism cannot be applied to all
writings by all writers. Some writings may contain several of the above
features, but there might be also elements that are not romantic.
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