Characteristics of Romantic Period

The year 1798 is momentous in the history of English poetry. Wordsworth along with Coleridge published Lyrical Ballads to announce the beginning of a new kind of poetry-romantic poetry. Wordsworth felt that romantic poetry is new both in theme and style.

Therefore, he added a preface as an introduction explaining the ways in which romantic poems differ from the poems popular in that age. Wordsworth's Preface to Lyrical Ballads is a great dividing line-it ends an era and marks the beginning of a new one. It demolishes the old and opens out a new vista and avenue.

The effect of the publication of the preface on the trend of English poetry was immense. Great poets like Shelley, Keats, Byron, Coleridge accepted Wordsworth's leadership in the romantic movement though these poets were original in their own way. They nonetheless believed firmly in English romanticism. In fact, romanticism' is one of the major movements in the history of English Literature.

Therefore, Wordsworth's Preface was an epoch-making document in more ways than one. It can't be denied that romanticism is a part and parcel of English poetry as a whole. It was the Preface that initiated that great movement-the movement of liberalism and rusticism in English poetry. Towards the end of the 18th-century poetry had become weak and effete.

The heroic couplet, which had been executed with such brilliance by Dryden & Pope, had lost its energy and vitality. It had degenerated into a mere imitation of the great masters. It was natural that a reaction should start fermenting against such as an out-worked & stereotyped Doetic diction. This reaction became clearly visible with the publication of Wordsworth's Preface to Lyrical Ballads which announced the arrival of a new school of poetry- romantic school of poetry.

Wordsworth in his Preface affirmed that the principal object proposed in the romantic poem was to choose incidents and situations from common life and to relate them throughout, as far as possible in a selection of language really used by man and at the same time throw over them a certain kind of imagination whereby ordinary things should be presented to our mind in an unusual way and furthermore and above all to make these incidents and situations interesting.

As far as the question of suitable subjects for poetry is concerned, Wordsworth is of the opinion that the feelings and emotions of the rustic and common man are proper and suitable for poetry. He emphasises on rustic life because in that condition men are free from all external influences and speak from their own personal experience and their passion are less under restrained.

Wordsworth makes bold claims for romantic poetry that to accommodate romantic poetry drastic re-evaluation of the earlier poetry will be necessary. William Wordsworth argues against poetic diction used by the 18th-century poets. He believes to separate poetry from the ordinary speech is to separate it from human life. For him, the great value of poetry is that it pursues the sharing of experience, the communication of truth.

Moreover, he finds no difference between the language of prose and poetry and says that it is a mistake to suppose that any theory of poetic diction can be all-inclusive. A poet is not bound to use all times a particular metre. In fact, Wordsworth makes an apology for romantic poetry, He dealt a knock-out blow to the artificial diction of the Augustan Poets-18th century poets that had held sway for nearly a century. The romantic poets, so to speak, rid English poetry of much that was artificial. They made the language of English poetry natural and simple.

In fact, first and fore-mostly, there is high imaginative Own imaginations and feelings. They had faith in their imagination. sensibility among the romantic poets. They gave importance to their Secondly, they brought supernaturalism in their poetry. Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner is an example. The poetry of the Augustan did not reflect supernatural elements-

Her lips were red, her looks were free,

Her locks were yellow as gold:

Her skin was as white as leprosy...

"The Nightmare, Life-in-death was she,

Who thicks man's blood with cold.

Thirdly, they were very sensuous to love and beauty. They had a sensitive mind. The slightest stir in nature around them was enough to bring emotions of joy and sorrow in their heart-

Thanks to the human heart by which we live,

Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,

To me the meanest flower that blows can give

Thoughts that do after lie too deep for tears.

The romantic poets were often escapists. They were tired of the hustle and bustle of city life. They did so even though they knew, it was only momentary. A verse of Keats' Ode to Nightingale may be cited- "That I might drink, and leave the world unseen, And with thee fade away into the forest dim:" The romantic poets liked to imagine of days gone by when there was chivalric knights in shining armour, a courageous man with noble ambition etc. There is a touch of medievalism in their poetry. Coleridge's Kubla Khan is an example- In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree:

Where Alph the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man

The romantics often aspired for things that may never be achieved. They had high ideals, high hopes. They were frustrated with the present-day society. They wanted a new order, In that order, there would not be inequality, prejudice, injustice etc. Shelley's Ode to the West Wind may be quoted-

Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth

Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!

Be through my lips to unawakened earth-

The trumpet of a prophecy!

O, Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

The romantic poets were also sceptical about the end and meaning of life. The complexity of life often pushed them into the abyss of dejection. Keats' lines from Ode to the Nightingale are appropriate. Keats was also sceptical- 

Darkling I listen; and, for many a time,

I have been half in love with easeful Death

Call'd him soft names in much-amused rhymes,

To take into the air my quiet breath;

Shelley is also sceptical about the society. In fact, he wants to change it. Shelley and other romantic poets believed in the universal brotherhood of man. Wordsworth wrote poems about the ordinary man. He felt that he was a part of the one great human family. Shelley realizes that prejudice marred his society.

As a result, he wanted the arrival of such a society where a man will talk with one another not as an inferior or superior but as an equal. Romanticism, generally speaking, is the expression in terms of the art of sharpened sensibility, heightened imaginative feeling.

It is an imaginative point of view that has influenced many art forms and has left its mark on philosophy and history. Romanticism opposes classicism. Order, balance, clarity and restraint of emotion are obviously classical qualities. But the romantic poets appear with the unbridled flight of imagination. Peter says- 

The romantic character in art is the addition of strangeness to beauty.