Which of the Following is Not a Romantic Characteristic

What Is Romanticism in Literature?

Popular in the late 18th and early on 19th centuries, Romanticism was a literary motion that emphasized nature and the importance of emotion and artistic freedom. In many ways, writers of this era were rebelling against the attempt to explain the world and human nature through science and the lens of the Industrial Revolution. In Romanticism, emotion is much more powerful than rational idea.

What Are the Characteristics of Romanticism in Literature?

Although literary Romanticism occurred from about 1790 through 1850, not all writers of this flow worked in this style. There are sure characteristics that make a piece of literature part of the Romantic movement. You lot won’t find every characteristic present in every piece of Romantic literature; however, yous volition usually find that writing from this period has several of the key characteristics.

1. Glorification of Nature

Nature, in all its unbound glory, plays a huge role in Romantic literature. Nature, sometimes seen every bit the reverse of the rational, is a powerful symbol in work from this era. Romantic poets and writers give personal, deep descriptions of nature and its wild and powerful qualities.

Natural elements besides work as symbols for the unfettered emotions of the poet or author, as in the final stanza of “To Fall” by John Keats. Keats was aware that he was dying of consumption throughout much of his short life and career, and his celebration of autumn symbolizes the beauty in the ephemeral.

Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they?

Think not of them, thou hast thy music likewise,—

While barred clouds blossom the soft-dying day,

And affect the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

Then in a wailful choir the pocket-size gnats mourn

Among the river sallows, borne aloft

Or sinking as the lite air current lives or dies;

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

The cherry-chest whistles from a garden-croft;

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

ii. Awareness and Credence of Emotions

A focus on emotion is a key characteristic of nearly all writing from the Romantic menstruation. When y’all read work of this period, you’ll see feelings described in all forms, including romantic and filial honey, fear, sorrow, loneliness, and more than. This focus on emotion offered a counterpoint to the rational, and it as well made Romantic poetry and prose extremely readable and relatable.

Mary Shelley’s
Frankenstein
offers a perfect case of this characteristic of Romanticism. Hither, Frankenstein’s monster shows nifty cocky-awareness of his feelings and offers a bright emotional description full of anger and sadness.

I continued for the balance of the day in my hovel in a land of utter and stupid despair. My protectors had departed and had broken the but link that held me to the world. For the first time the feelings of revenge and hatred filled my bosom, and I did not strive to control them, but allowing myself to exist borne abroad by the stream, I bent my heed towards injury and expiry. When I thought of my friends, of the mild voice of De Lacey, the gentle eyes of Agatha, and the exquisite beauty of the Arabian, these thoughts vanished and a gush of tears somewhat soothed me. But once more when I reflected that they had spurned and deserted me, anger returned, a rage of acrimony, and unable to injure anything man, I turned my fury towards inanimate objects. As night avant-garde I placed a diverseness of combustibles around the cottage, and later having destroyed every vestige of cultivation in the garden, I waited with forced impatience until the moon had sunk to commence my operations.

3. Commemoration of Artistic Creativity and Imagination

In contrast to the previous generations’ focus on reason, writers of the Romantic move explored the importance of imagination and the artistic impulse. Romantic poets and prose writers celebrated the ability of imagination and the creative procedure, also as the creative viewpoint. They believed that artists and writers looked at the world differently, and they celebrated that vision in their work.

You tin see this in William Wordsworth’southward poem, “The Prelude.”

Imagination—here the Ability so called

Through sad incompetence of human speech,

That awful Power rose from the mind’s abyss

Similar an unfathered vapour that enwraps,

At once, some lonely traveller. I was lost;

Halted without an try to break through;

Only to my conscious soul I at present can say—

“I recognise thy celebrity:” in such forcefulness

Of usurpation, when the lite of sense

Goes out, but with a flash that has revealed

The invisible world….

4. Emphasis on Aesthetic Beauty

Romantic literature also explores the theme of
aesthetic
beauty, non only of nature merely of people too. This was especially true with descriptions of female beauty. Writers praised women of the Romantic era for their natural loveliness, rather than anything bogus or constrained.

A archetype example of this characteristic is George Gordon, or Lord Byron’s, poem “She Walks in Beauty.”

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that’s best of dark and bright

Run into in her aspect and her eyes;

Thus mellowed to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy twenty-four hour period denies.

5. Themes of Solitude

Writers of the Romantic era believed that creative inspiration came from lonely exploration. They celebrated the feeling of existence alone, whether that meant loneliness or a much-needed tranquility space to think and create.

You’ll come across alone themes in many literary works from this flow, including in this excerpt from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’due south poem “Frost at Midnight.”

The Frost performs its secret ministry,

Unhelped by whatsoever wind. The owlet’s weep

Came loud—and hark, again! loud equally earlier.

The inmates of my cottage, all at rest,

Have left me to that solitude, which suits

Abstruser musings: relieve that at my side

My cradled babe slumbers peacefully …

6. Focus on Exoticism and History

Romantic-era literature oft has a singled-out focus on exotic locations and events or items from history. Poems and prose touch on antiques and the gifts of ancient cultures effectually the globe, and far-away locations provide the setting for some literary works of this era.

One neat instance is Percy Byssche Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias.”

I met a traveler from an antique land,

Who said—“2 vast and trunkless legs of rock

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

7. Spiritual and Supernatural Elements

The writers of the Romantic era did non plough away from the darker side of emotion and the mysteries of the supernatural. They explored the contrast between life and decease. Many pieces have
Gothic motifs, such equally estate houses in disrepair, dark and stormy nights, and more than.

Some of the supernatural elements serve equally symbols for emotions of guilt, depression, and other darker feelings, as you can come across in this extract from
The Fall of the Firm of Conductor
by Edgar Allan Poe.

I learned, moreover, at intervals, and through broken and equivocal hints, some other singular feature of his mental condition. He was enchained by certain superstitious impressions in regard to the dwelling which he tenanted, and whence, for many years, he had never ventured along –in regard to an influence whose supposititious force was conveyed in terms as well shadowy here to be re-stated –an influence which some peculiarities in the mere form and substance of his family mansion, had, by dint of long sufferance, he said, obtained over his spirit-an event which the physique of the grey walls and turrets, and of the dim tarn into which they all looked down, had, at length, brought about upon the morale of his existence.

viii. Vivid Sensory Descriptions

Some other essential feature of nearly all Romantic-era literature is vivid sensory descriptions. The poems and prose of this period include examples of simile and metaphor, besides as visual imagery and other sensory details. Poets and other writers went across but telling about things and instead gave the information readers need to feel and taste and affect the objects and surroundings in Romantic-era writing.

Wordsworth uses brilliant descriptions, including similes and metaphors, in his famous poem, “I Wandered Alone as a Cloud.”

I wandered lonely as a deject

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at one time I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze …

ix. Use of Personification

Romantic poets and prose writers also used
personification
in their piece of work. You lot tin see examples of personification of everything from birds and animals to natural events or aspects. These works even personify feelings like beloved or states like decease.

You lot can come across Romantic personification in the work of the famous naturalist and writer, Karl von Martius. Here is an excerpt about the trees of the Amazon from his book
Flora Brasiliensis.

I am impelled past some inner urge to tell you, gentle reader, these thoughts of my listen, since I am presenting to your optics a picture of those nigh ancient copse which I once saw abreast the Amazon River. Fifty-fifty today, after many years accept gone by, I feel myself struck by the advent of those giants of great age, in the same way equally by the face of some giant human being. Even today those copse speak to me and fill my spirit with a sure pious fear, even today they excite in my breast that silent wonder with which my spirit was held at that fourth dimension. This wonder is like a broad and deep river; the thoughts of the human mind are its waves; not all feelings of the centre are to be expressed with words….

10. Focus on the Self and Autobiography

Many works of Romantic-era literature are deeply personal, and they often explore the self of the writer. You’ll encounter
autobiographical
influences in poems and prose of the menses. I feature of this movement was the importance placed on feelings and inventiveness, and the source of much of this emotional and artistic piece of work was the background and real-life environs of the writer. This self-focus preceded confessional verse of the mid-1900s, but you lot can encounter its profound influence on that movement.

I cardinal example of Romantic autobiography is Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s
Confessions. In this work, he endeavored to create an unvarnished look at his ain upbringing and life.

I take begun on a work which is without precedent, whose accomplishment will take no imitator. I propose to set earlier my fellow-mortals a man in all the truth of nature; and this man shall be myself.

I accept studied mankind and know my heart; I am not made like whatsoever one I have been acquainted with, perhaps similar no i in existence; if not amend, I at least claim originality, and whether Nature has acted rightly or wrongly in destroying the mold in which she bandage me, can only be decided after I have been read.

Key Poetic Forms of Romanticism

If yous are studying poetry of the Romantic era, it’s helpful to know the forms that were popular during this time. These included odes, sonnets and lyrics. Take a expect at examples of odes by Romantic poets like Keats, likewise as sonnet examples by the likes of Percy Shelley. Understanding these poetic forms and their relationship to Romanticism will give you a deeper appreciation of this work.