Baudelaire- What is Romanticism? Romantic Circles Voice of the Shuttle

What time the mighty moon was gathering light
Love paced the thymy plots of Paradise,
And all about him roll'd his lustrous eyes;
When, turning round a cassia, full in view,
Death, walking all alone beneath a yew,
And talking to himself, first met his sight.
'You must begone,' said Death, 'these walks are mine.'
Love wept and spread his sheeny vans for flight;
Yet ere he parted said, 'This hour is thine:
Thou art the shadow of life, and as the tree
Stands in the sun and shadows all beneath,
So in the light of great eternity
Life eminent creates the shade of death.
The shadow passeth when the tree shall fall,
But I shall reign for ever over all.'

-"Love and Death" by Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1883)

Love prevails over death, emotions govern life and thought, and the will of the human spirit is valued over logic and reason-such was the cultural philosophy that dominated the mid-eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century. Christened the Romantic Movement, it flourished in Europe and America for approximately a hundred years, during which time it swept away tradition in literature, painting, sculpture, drama, music, opera, and ballet.

The Romantic Movement first took root in Germany and then England in the 1780s. With the decline of Neoclassicism and the Enlightenment, and the American and French Revolutions, the movement shook the rest of Europe and lighted across the seas in the second wave to America. The ideals and tenets were the exact opposite of Neoclassicism, which emphasized order, logic, emotional restraint, balance, science, and reason. However, as the industrial revolution gained its footing in England, and cities began to grow, the ideals were reevaluated and emotions, individuality, and nature overshadowed Neoclassicism.

The entomology of the word "romantic" is also of some interest. It was first used to describe medieval romances in the mid-1600s. After that, however, "romantic" was associated with anything that opposed truth and fact. Later the term connoted with the opposition to reason by German and British poets of the late 18th century. Now, the term describes the entire literary and artistic movement.

The movement was extremely popular in literature. In America, Romanticism was defined by the "five I's:" inspiration, intuition, innocence, imagination, and inner experience. These tenets gave rise to many Romantic writers, who stressed the innate goodness of man, favored the individual over the group, revered nature, and rebelled against political authority. Thus, the Romantic hero-youthful, innocent, intuitive, in touch with nature and out of touch with civilization-was created These authors were met with some resistance by the Dark Romantics, which declared humans inherently evil and acknowledged guilt and sin. But all Romantics believed in signs and symbols in human and natural events and considered intuition the superior of logic and reason. Nature was also a particularly common subject and is consistently used in American Transcendentalism and British poetry and prose. Thus the written word was an important tool in conveying the ideals of the Romantic movement.

In art, the movement stretched from 1800 to 1850. It can be described as highly imaginative, emotional, and visionary. Romantic artists constantly desired to show the mysterious and wild aspects of nature, and were motivated by passion, drama, and melancholy. Specifically, this was demonstrated by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in England. In music, the movement was concentrated in 1828 and 1880 and spanned from 1789 to 1914. Individuality, intensity of feeling, sweetly gloomy tones (morbidezza), optimism, and nationalism were displayed by Romantic composers in the production of operas, ballets, and symphonies.

Overall, Romanticism cannot be succinctly defined-only loosely translated, for no amount of words can describe the creativity and power of any particular movement. But the spirit of Romanticism has and will influence countless generations to come.

Sources:

Romanticism. Ed. Paul Brians. March 1998. Washington State U. 21 Sept. 2000 <http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/hum_303/romanticism.html>

Tennyson, Alfred Lord. "Love and Death." Biography, anthology and poems of 19th Century British and American Poets. June. 2001. <http://www.2020site.org/poetry/>

"Romanticism (literature)," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001
http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Noyes, Russell. English Romantic Poetry and Prose. New York: Oxford University Press, 1956.