How Romantic was Romanticism?
Romanticism was a movement developed around the 18th century. It emphasized intense emotions and feelings over reason and logic. Romantics were obsessed with viewing things and situations with their hearts rather than their minds. Perhaps, the reason why Romantics weighed passions over thoughts was the universality of feelings. Since we all experience happiness, sadness, seriousness, contemplativeness, love, hate, delight, and sorrow etc. it is easier for readers to comprehend the poetry of the poet. Also, emotions are powerful; stirring the reader and the poet, while linking them together in the experience.
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Emotions vs. Logic
Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, and other Romantics observed that reason and logic did not explain everything around them. The Enlightenment movement which was present at that time was rejected by the Romantics and they searched for deeper, internal charms. They were firm believers that everything had their own value and significance and nothing was absolute. Logic did not allow such ideas; it was more restricted and constrained, labelling everything in a distinct category and never once seeing it from another perspective.
Ufff… EMOTIONS
Emotions can provide more simple explanations to events than reason and logic can. Emotions are an automatic response while reason takes more time and effort to drill into the readers, thereby saving the readers and the poet from this burden. Arousing the emotions of the readers is not a difficult task as emotions are a huge part of who we are as humans. Also, emotions tend to stimulate and affect us more quickly than reason or logic due to the fact that they are found within a more primitive part of our brains. Before Science and technology, emotions were ruling our decisions and for the Romantics, this was a notion they wanted to continue.
In the preface to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth defined poetry as a “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings; it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.”
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The Prelude
The Prelude is an autobiographical poem by Wordsworth in which he depicts the various experiences that helped shape his psychology and poetic mind. From the opening lines, we can see how happy the poet is when is able to escape the confinement of his apartment and go back to his birthplace, where he is closer to nature and its elements. It is when he is closer to the natural world that Wordsworth is able to fully express his emotions and imagination.
As if with voluntary power instinct,
Uprear’d its head. I struck, and struck again
And, growing still in stature, the huge Cliff
Rose up between me and the stars, and still,
With measur’d motion, like a living thing,
Strode after me. (The Prelude 1. 411-412)
Conclusion
Here, we can see that emotions conquer rationality. No one in their right mind would be scared of a cliff and think it is chasing him. But, Wordsworth shows how guilt of stealing the boat made him feel like a thief and the cliff was there to ensure his punishment. Emotions take over and it is due to these emotions, the experience is not only remembered but also manifested in his poetry, which will live on and be remembered by every coming generation.
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Currently, I am a student of Fatima Jinnah Women University. With a burning passion for psychology, words, and dreams, I decided to abandon medical studies for humanities. These days, when I’m not listening to ballads, watching movies, or sitting down with a good novel, I am rigorously studying Hangul (Korean language) to satisfy my obsession for BTS and K dramas. I’m a thinking introvert and INFJ personality. Therefore, I like ‘me time’. My articles typically resonate with psychological well-being advice.