Romanticism in Poetry

• What was happening in the 19th century regarding poetry in Europe and The Americas?

  Poets were inventing new poetic forms and resisting traditional expectations.
• What are the main characteristics of Romanticism in poetry?

  • Emphasis on nature
  • First group in the West to focus on nature as a subject
  • Reaction to industrialization
  • Valorization of rural life
  • Rejection of reason in art and society
  • Focus on imagination and emotions
  • Use of plain language and local dialects
  • Revival of folklore and folk traditions
  • Rejection of Neoclassical styles
  • Dominance of lyric poetry
• How did Romantic poets view nature compared to earlier eras?

  They took nature as an important subject matter rather than a controlled element.
• What impact did the Industrial Revolution have on the perception of nature in Romantic poetry?

  Nature became seen as exotic and a source of loss and longing.
• What did Romantic poets idealize in response to industrialization?

  They idealized rural life.
• How did Romanticism differ from earlier artistic movements regarding nature?

  Romanticism embraced wildness and freedom from constraints of reason and authority.
• What was rejected as the organizing principle for art and society in Romanticism?

  Reason was rejected.
• What themes were emphasized in Romantic poetry?

  Imagination, excess, spontaneity, freedom, and revolution.
• What types of settings are often found in Romantic poetry?

  Ghostly and exotic settings.
• What aspects of human experience did Romantic poets focus on?

  Inward emotions, dreams, fantasies, and the unconscious.
• How did Romantic poets view children and childhood?

  They viewed them as closer to nature and more pure.
• What was the significance of the ordinary individual in Romantic poetry?

  They emphasized the solitary soul and the outcast as important figures.
• What type of language did Romantic poets often use?

  They used plain, unaffected language and local folk dialects.
• What role did folklore play in Romantic poetry?

  It was revived as a form of nationalism and emphasized common people.
• What styles and forms did Romantic poets reject?

  They rejected Neoclassical styles and forms.
• What is the dominant poetic form in Romanticism?

  The lyric poem is the dominant form.
• What does a lyric poem express?

  It expresses a process of perception, thought, or emotion, often in the first person.
• How does the structure of a lyric poem reflect Romantic ideals?

  It embodies freedom from set conventions in meter, stanza length, or structure.
• How did Romanticism influence later poetry in the 20th century and beyond?

  • Many characteristics of Romanticism carried through into 20th Century poetry
  • Continued influence on contemporary poetry