The Spontaneous Overflow of Powerful Feelings

WHAT IS ROMANTICISM?

(Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, Friedrich Caspar David, 1818)

Romanticism started very late 18^th century. This period, though by far the shortest, is at least as complex and diverse as any other period in British literary history, and it is, tellingly demarcated differently than any of the other eras that literary hi

storians and anthologists include in their timelines. It was quite different from Victorian age. It began with the publication of LYRICAL BALLADS (1798) by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In this work, Wordsworth maintained that All good poetry was, at the moment of composition, “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.” In romanticism, contents were more important than form on the contrary Victorian Period. It encouraged freedom and celebrated nature, the ordinary people, and freedom of spirit. And also, there are some important writers of Romanticism;

1. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
2. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
3. LORD BYRON
4. PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
5. JOHN KEATS
6. WILLIAM BLAKE

William Blake was added later this scheme as a 6^th poet but 20^th century scholars/ critics regard him as a representor of pre- romanticism, and in pre- romanticism, we have Thomas Gray, but these people did not regard themselves as a ‘romantic poet’. This name was given them by 20^th century critics. In romanticism there are some important concepts. These are;

1. Emotion
2. Individual
3. Poetry
4. Extraordinary/ Imagination (imagination is the creative faculty and necessity.)

Poems were sometimes written as songs (lyric poem written in 1^st person is a major Romantic form.) Poetry used the language of the common people. Romantics aimed delighting rather than teaching. They were not didactic. The poets were known as

(Disappointed Love, Francis Danby, 1821)

bards. It was mostly confessional writing. There are some principles of Romanticism. These are;

1. Organicism: It opposed with the mechanical UNİVERSE OF Neoclassicism.
2. Emphasize of Imagination: Imagination is considered to be the creative faculty.
3. Intuition: The poets reach the universal (the hidden truths) through intuition.
4. Symbolism: They argue that it is possible to create certain generalizations with imagination and represent them with symbols. Literature is expression of experiences through symbols (The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge is a good example)

Besides the principles, there are also some characteristics of Romanticism. These are;

1. Return to Nature: It is not Neo- classical Nature but the external, outdoor nature. They enjoyed for the nature’s grandeur, sumbiles. Beauty of nature is so important for them.
2. Romantic Melancholy: Melancholy is related to emotions, feelings and sensations, and also sometimes is associated with death, human condition, sufferings of the humankind.

Did “God left men all alone”?