Romanticism

The Romantic Period

Characteristics:

The Romantic Era was in response to the tenets of The Enlightenment. Where Enlightenment ideals

focused on reason, the ideals of the new periods focused on understanding the world though one’s

senses, feelings, and imagination. There was a renewed interest in natural settings and Nature as

opposed to urban surroundings. Rather than an interest in science and technology, the mysterious and

infinite were emphasized. Poets of the period believed that Nature – with a capital N – in general and

the nature of humanity were idealized and that the common ills of contemporary society were caused

by the difficulties of city life. Also, the Romantic poets were inspired by England’s Medieval past, which

seemed like a Golden Age compared to the urbanization and industrialization around them.

The ideals of Romanticism affected novelists, like Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851) who wrote

the Romantic gothic novel Frankenstein in 1818, composers like Ludwig von Beethoven (1770-1827), and

a variety of artists . The poems you will study in this module, exemplify this emphasis on Nature,

emotions, and the imagination. Romanticism spread throughout Europe and, later, the United States.

Read more about art at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Heilbrunn Timeline of Art

History”: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/roma/hd_roma.htm

Read about Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley at the Encyclopædia Britannica:

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/539744/Mary-Wollstonecraft-Shelley

Read more about Ludwig von Beethoven also at the Encyclopædia Brittanica:

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/58473/Ludwig-van-Beethoven