English Romantic Literature by Kashini Nair (193298)

What is English Romantic Literature?

Romantic is characterised by the expression of love. Romantic also means a word which describes the feeling you have for someone you love. It could be anything in this world no boundaries for love i would say. But what is a romantic period ? Is it a time you were being only romantic? Thats what i thought at first when i was introduced to the headline ROMANTIC LITERATURE.

Romantic era is an artistic, literary, musical, cultural and intellectual movement originating in Europe, toward the end of the 18th century. In most areas it was at its peak approximately 1800–1850. Romanticism was characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of all the past and nature, preferring the medieval rather than the classical. English Romantic Literature emphasis on the individual and democracy. Besides it also contemplates nature. Its a celebration of nature and its beauty.As what i understood, contemplate natures means translating a vision to written words through imaginations. We get to see our idea being transformed into words of arts. Thats how beautiful and creative can someone be in words.

Moreover, romantic literature merely focuses on emotions. How do we get those emotions just by reading? Thats where the words play the biggest role in this era. Poets used words and intonations to describe a theme or plot which could make someone think and feel empathy towards a written text. It made them feel the pain, joy, happy, anger and sad just by reading a text. Thats how an emotion played its role in a person’s reading. Poets used simple language to deliver their thoughts such as in a poem or plays. I strongly believe that simple words can make someone understand the plot easier than the complicated words where you have to use a dictionary to know the meanings. We would just ignore the words and move on reading the next line. Unknowingly we might missed the important emotions in the poem for example just because we don’t know the meaning. With simple language we managed to understand the text thoroughly. The use of personifications are also not complicated in romantic literature as they are all in common language.

I am very certain that good literature art work comes from a very calibre author. Likewise we have many talented poets in romantic era such as William Blake, William Wordsworth, and samuel Taylor Coleridge as early poets and Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats as late poets. There are women writers at forefront of literary development such as Mary Wollstonecraft and also novelists such as Mary Shelley and Jane Austen. 

Moreover, I understood that William Blake’s early development of a protective shield with mocking humour which to face a world in which science had become trifling and art inconsequential is visible. He then took the bolder step of setting aside sophistication in the visionary Songs of Innocence (1789). His desire for renewal encouraged him to view the outbreak of the French Revolution as a momentous event. Blake developed these ideas in the visionary narratives of Milton (1804–1808) and Jerusalem (1804–1820). He used his own mythological characters and portrayed the imaginative artist as the hero of society. That was a fantastic potray indeed.

Pity,” colour print finished in pen and watercolour by William Blake, 1795; in the Tate Gallery, London.

There are so many interesting outcomes from all these talented poets. They have made a huge impact on literature during this era. Those artworks should be treasured because it comes from the famous and incredible poets are based on their life experience which needed a concern at their times. In conclusion literature helps us to experience new worlds and it represents the language or the culture of people in general. Literary works are read aesthetically because liteature is universal.

By KASHINI NAIR A/P THAMODHARAN (193298)