CSP
What is Romanticism? Discuss salient features of Romanticism with special reference to W.Wordsworh and John Keats.
Answer:
The word Romanticism has been derived from the word Romance which means to give full play imagination. Romanticism has occupied a permanent position in English literature. It is a style of art music and literature that was common in Europe in rhe late 18th and early 19th centuries. The word Romanticism brings in its boundary not only literature but also politics, philosophy and the arts generally. Is is the opposite of classicism. It was a revolt against the Neoclassic trends of poetry of the Augustan period.
Romanticism is a term which cannot be defined accurately. Many critics have defined it in various ways, in various angles.An English critic, F.L.Lucas has counted 11,396 definitionsof romanticism. So this term is very difficult to define. C.H.Herfold has defined as “Romanticism is an extra -ordinary development of imaginative sensibility. ” Again Watts Dunton says, Romanticism is the Renaissance of wonder.”
There are many salient features of Romanticism. These are:–
1)High imagination.
2)Love for Beauty
3)Love for nature
4)Subjectivity
5)Simplicity in expression
6)Individualism
7)Melancholy
8)Supernaturalism
9)Medievalism
10)common theme
11)Love for freedom and liberty
12)Common Language
The English romantic poets began a new movement in English poetry. Now we will discuss the salient features of romanticism with special reference to Wordsworth and Keats.
William Wordsworth :is the founder of Romantic period.He is one of the major romantic poets. He is called the poet of nature. His great poems are “I Wondered Lonely as a Cloud”,” Tintern Abbey”,”Intimations of Immortality”.Now we will show the salient features of romanticism with reference to Wordsworth :-
*The most salient feature of romanticism is high imagination. All the poems of Wordsworth show high imagination.
*Love for nature is an important feature of Wordsworth’s poetry. He shows great interest in nature. He says that nature is the heart, guide, guardian and nurse.
*Common language is another feature of Wordsworth’s poetry. In his poetry, he has used common language. For example, in his poem, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, we find common language.
*Common theme is another vital feature of Wordsworth’s poetry. He uses the subject matter of common life and things.
*Subjectivity is an important feature of Wordsworth’s poetry. He writes his poems in subjective style.He expresses his own feelings, emotions and paasions in his poems.
*Glorification of childhood is also a great feature of romanticism. It is a great feature of Wordsworth too.He has glorified childhood in his ode,Intimations of immortality and his other poems.
John Keats is woe-begotten of all Romantic poets. His significant works are–To Autumn,Ode on a Grecian Urn,Ode to a Nightingale etc.The salient feature of Keat’s poetry in the following —
*Subjectivity is an important feature of romanticism. Keats is essentially subjective. He wrote his poems in subjective manner where he expresses his own sorrow and suffering.
*Love for beauty is an important feature of Keat’s poetry.
*Escapism is an important feature of romanticism. In the poems of Keats, we fimd the theme of escapism.
*Sensuousness is another important feature of romanticism. It is also an important feature of Keat’s poetry. The presence of sensuousness is found in his odes.
*Melancholy is an important feature of romanticism. In the poems of Keats,we find the theme of melancholy.
In conclusion, we can say that William Wordsworth and John Keats are the towering figures in the Romantic period. In their poems, we notice the features of romanticism very finely.
-by Antora