Characteristics of Romanticism

Interest in the common man
--language of common man
--virtues of simple life
--(underlying, sometimes--an implied sense of superiority)

Emphasis on the innocence of childhood
--children recollect the innocence and purity of a higher world
--understand that individuals must go through experience to reach a higher level, yet perception of childhood innocence helps remind us of our goal

Return to nature
--nature is a manifestation of God
--an intuitive understanding of nature can link us to God

Love of past
--sense of "golden age" of human innocence that we have lost
--ancient ideas celebrated, but NOT ancient forms

Melancholy
--at failure to achieve higher truth in life
--at losing touch with poetic imagination
--at mutability (passing of beauty)

Emphasis on subject
--form less important than subject
--subject guides structure
--experience seen as subjective rather than objective

Imagination
--ability to see inner relationships
--intuitive perception of higher truth
--looking for "windows into eternity" and "spots of time" that the poet can use to perceive and illustrate higher truth
-Gothic elements (see the Gothic page)

This overschematic oversimplification will help you perceive the identifying characteristics of the eras. Remember what T.S. Eliot said: that the beginning of the 18th c. saw the "dissociation of thought and feeling," with the emphasis on thought; the 19th century, he claims, tends to reverse the priorities but not reunite the two.