CORE ROMANTIC IDEAS,THEMES&TECHNIQUES Flashcards
(7 cards)
Imagination over Reason
A reaction against Enlightenment rationalism.
Imagination viewed as a route to truth, beauty, and spiritual insight.
Nature as Teacher and Healer
Nature isn’t just pretty – it’s a moral guide, source of joy, and connection to the divine.
Wordsworth: Nature shapes the soul (Tintern Abbey).
Shelley: Nature as both powerful and politically symbolic (Ode to the West Wind).
Childhood and Innocence
Childhood seen as a time of purity and closeness to nature/spiritual truth.
Influenced by Rousseau’s belief that society corrupts the innocent child.
Blake: Contrasts innocence vs. experience (e.g. The Chimney Sweeper).
Emotion and Subjectivity
Deep focus on personal feeling, introspection, and the intensity of experience.
Keats: Evokes powerful emotions like melancholy, desire, and transience in his odes.
Mortality and Transcience
Keen awareness of the fleeting nature of life and beauty.
Keats: Struggled with death and the quest for lasting beauty (Ode on a Grecian Urn, To Autumn).
The Supernatural and Sublime
The sublime = awe-inspiring, vast, sometimes terrifying (e.g. mountains, oceans, storms).
Coleridge: Uses supernatural to explore guilt and redemption.
Byron and Shelley: Mix the sublime with Gothic elements and radical rebellion.
POETIC TECHNIQUES COMMON IN ROMANTIC POETRY
First-person narrative – personal, emotional voice.
Nature imagery – rivers, skies, mountains, seasons.
Contrast – e.g. innocence vs. experience, man vs. nature.
Symbolism – especially in Blake, Keats, Shelley.
Sensory language – especially in Keats (taste, touch, smell, sight).
Mythological and classical references – seen in Keats and Shelley.
Elevated diction and lyricism – musical, rhythmic quality to convey intense feeling.
Odes, ballads, sonnets, and blank verse used to express different tones and themes.
