It is generally supposed that the English Romantic Movement began in 1798. However, it is not a sudden outbreak but the result of long and gradual growth and development. The Romanticism is a literary movement which took place in Britain and throughout Europe between 1770 and 1848. Politically, it was inspired by the revolutions in America and France. Emotionally, it expressed an extreme claim of the self and the value of the individual experience together with the sense of the limitless and the transcendental. In Britain, Romantic writers of the first generation included Wordsworth and Coleridge, Blake and Burns. The second generation of British Romantics—Byron, Shelley and Keats absorbed these influences, wrote quickly, travelled widely and their life stories and letters became almost as important for Romanticism as their poetry.
Romanticism does not mean one thing or one characteristic. It is, in fact, a collective term to mean certain characteristics, such as mysticism, humanism, supernaturalism, love of beauty, love of nature, love of equality. The chief characteristics of romantic poetry are as the following:
Subjectivity: All romantic literature is subjective. It is an expression of the inner urges of the soul of the artist. The poet gives free expression to his feelings, emotions, experiences, thoughts and ideas and does not care for rules and regulations. The emphasis is laid on inspiration and intuition(直觉).
Love of Nature: Enthusiasm for the beauties of the external world characterizes all romantic poetry. Romantic poetry carries us away from the uncomfortable atmosphere of cities into the fresh company of the outdoor world. All poets were lovers of nature and looked at the beautiful aspects of nature. To them, nature was a friend, a lover, a mother, sister and a teacher.
Imagination and Emotion: The romantic poets laid emphasis on imagination and emotion. The Wordsworth's romantic poem I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud deals with subjects of creative imagination, childhood memories, beauty of nature, the role of nature as a guiding spirit.
