Representation of Nature and Emotions in Romanticism

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Romanticism is a philosophical and artistic movement of the eighteenth and nineteenth century that marked a change in the emotional core of literature, philosophy, art, religion, and politics in reaction on the enlightenment. It is a contrast to neo-classicism characterized by the predominance of imagination over reason and formal rules, the love of nature —nature is good; cities are harmful to humans—, the power of individual, an interest in human rights, sentimentality, childhood innocence, the revolutionary spirit and melancholy. Romantic writers reject most of traditional form and themes. According to the Musical Quarterly, probably no two persons may exactly the same conception of what romanticism is. Victor Hugo for instance, defines romanticism has “liberalism in nature”

The Romantic Movement was marked by several authors including William Wordsworth, Alphonse de Lamartine, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and John Keats. The following lines are going to introduce these authors by giving a brief background and detailed information about their works in accordance with romanticism characteristics.

William Wordsworth, a major English romantic poet, born in 1770 and died in 1850. He writes his poetry as an analysis upon nature. Even though Wordsworth is very much into nature he still keeps his identity as human. He is a great romantic writer because his writings reflect characteristics of the movement. As a poet, he wrote numerous poems and odes—Lyric poems in the form of an address to a particular subject, meant to be sung—. In this part you are going to be introduced to one of his famous odes, Ode: Intimations of Immortality. This poem is long and complicated but shows the Wordsworth connection to nature and how he makes an ef...

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...orth for he always pay attention to the details of all that is physical around him

Lamartine in The Lake implores time to stop. But we all know time cannot stop flowing; therefore we must enjoy the present while in the presence of our beloved ones. Nature is moral guide and universal mentor ( Wordsworth)

For Lamartine, nature was a manifestation of divine grandeur. He believed that contemplating it could stimulate religious faith.

Works-cited

Bernbaum, Ernest, The English Romantic Poets, New York: The Modern Language association, 1950

“To Autumn”, The Norton Anthology of World Literature

Bloom, Harold, William Wordsworth, New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1985

Parker, D.C “The Musical Quarterly” 84, No.1-94, No.3 (2000-2011): 307 JSTOR. Web 23 April 2012.http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.martinmethodist.edu/stable/738059>

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