the romantic age

The romantic age was the period in which new ideas and attitudes arose in reaction to the
dominant 18 century.ideals of order calm harmony balance rationality..

2)Romantic vs Enlightenment→ Engl trends:emphasised reason and judgment.Focused an

society as a whole followed authority interested in science and technology
Romantic trends:Emphasised imagination and emotion.valued individuals looked for freedom
represented common people(poor people)Interested in the supernatural.

3) English Romanticism → a revolt of english imagination against the neoclassical

reason.Influenced by the French revolution and the english industrial revolution The
romantics expressed a negative attitude towards existing social or political conditions.Placed
the individual at the centre of art.Argued that poetry should be free from all rules

4) ideas→ focus on the beauties of nature,seen as living being.use of creative

imagination.exaltation of emotion over reason and senses over intellect.A new view of the
artist as an individual creator.Fascination with the irrational past,exotic th mysterious

5)The romantic nature is opposed to reason,a substitute for traditional religion.A vehicle for
self consciousness.A source of sensations A provocation to a state of imagination and vision
An expressive language

6)the imagination -->•A creative power superior to reason.Shaped the poets’ fleeting visions
into concrete forms.A dynamic, active, rather than passive power.Allows human beings to
‘read’ nature as a system of symbols.

DAFFODILS
Wordsworth and the relationship with nature Wordsworth was interested in the relationship
between the natural world and human consciousness. His poetry therefore offers a detailed
account of the complex interaction between man and nature, of the influences, insights,
emotions and sensations which arise from this contact rather than precise and objective
observation of natural phenomena. When a natural object is described, the main focus of
interest is actually the poet's response to that object. Indeed, one of the most consistent
concepts in Wordsworth's work is the idea that man and nature are inseparable; man exists
not outside the natural world, but as an active participant in it, so that 'nature' to Wordsworth
means something that includes both inanimate and human nature - each being part of the
same whole. Nature comforts man in sorrow; it is a source of pleasure and joy. It teaches
man to love and to act in a moral way; it is the seat of the spirit of the universe.

The importance of the senses

Nature also means the world of sense perceptions. Wordsworth exploited above all the
sensibility of the eye and ear through which he could perceive both the 'beauteous forms' of
nature and the sounds of the winds or waters, or the silence of secluded places. Sensations
lead to simple thoughts, which later combine Into complex and organised ideas.

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Recollection in tranquillity
All genuine poetry 'takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity' so that what we
read in the poem results from the active, vital relationship between present and past
experience. Through the re-creative power of memory, an emotion is reproduced and
purified in poetic form so that a second emotion, "kindred' to the first one, is generated.
The whole process could be described as in the sequence below: → emotion → memory =
object → poet → sensory experience - recollection in tranquillity- → emotion "kindred'
emotion → poem → reader

The poet's task

The poet, though a common man, has a greater sensibility and the ability to penetrate the
heart of things. The power of imagination enables him to communicate his knowledge, so
that he becomes a teacher who shows men how to understand their feelings and improve
their moral being. His task consists in drawing attention to the ordinary things of life, to the
humblest people, where the deepest emotions and truths are to be found.