William Wordsworth's Perception Of Romanticism In The Era Of Imagination

Era of Imagination

My initial perception of Romanticism was a period of love for another individual. During my research, I learned that it was not love for an individual, but the love of nature, freedom, and imagination. “The quintessence of Romanticism is perhaps best revealed by setting forth its concepts of the Imagination-what it is, what it is not, how it functions, and why it is of greatest importance in human life” (Bernbaum 323). Romanticism is a style of art and literature during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Romantic era was a time that artist showed fearlessness and honesty by emphasizing on imaginations and emotions. During the era, there were two prominent English Poets, William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge. The era was during a multitude of changes. For example, the period was during the Napoleonic wars, economic troubles, and the Industrial Revolution. Williams Wordsworth was born

The poem was revised numerous of times, but was never published by himself. He began writing the poem in approximately 1798. His wife, Mary, named and published it three months after his death. He implied that it was “unprecedented in literary history that a man should talk so much about himself,” (Bloom15) although many critics felt he was too self-centered in all of his work. The poem was initially intended to be an introduction. The poem has fourteen books. The Prelude is an unusual poem because it consists of history and autobiography. It is a poem about a child growing up in the Lake District and having to experience the French Revolution. One critic Geoffrey H. Hartman stated, “Nature, for Wordsworth, is not an ‘object’ but a presence and a power; a motion a spirit; not something to be worshiped and consumed, but always a guide leading beyond itself. This guidance starts in earliest childhood. The boy of Prelude I is fostered alike by beauty and by fear” (Bloom