Age of Romanticism

“ Make me thy, even as the forest is :

What if my leaves are falling like its own !

The tumult of the mighty harmonies

Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone,

Sweet tough in sadness

Be thou, spirit, fierce;

My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!”

The liquid ecstasy of the above mentioned words was indited in the period, popularly known as the ‘Age of Romanticism’ between 1800 –1850.

In the English Literature the 'Age of Romanticism' is also known as the ‘Second Creative Period of English Literature’. In the history this period recorded the victory of triumph in literature as well as of Democracy in government and politics.

The correlation between the two movements closely depicted the cause and effect theory in them.

The black letters in the history books loudly outcry the hullaballoo and disturbance of the 19th century political violence in England. As soon as all that was over, humanistic study of a body of literature, suddenly developed a new creative spirit, mused deeply in the words of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Jane Auste Byron, Shelley; and other terrific writers that belong to that period. Their patriotic ebullience actually caused their age to become the second originative and creative period of English Literature, causing the English language to prosper and thrive in the whole world and flourish at a high point in the history of England.

The inwardness of the ‘Age of Romanticism’ was that literature must reverberate what was spontaneous and untouched in nature and in man, should be unconstrained and must be free to follow its own fancy in its own way.

Than another prominent attribute or aspect was that it was unquestionable and beyond doubt an age of poetry. The essence of this age lies in the poetic words of Scott, Wordsworth, Keats, Southey and others.

The most surprising characteristic of this period is that – women for the first time obtained the respectable and important status in Literature, as for the first time got the chance to be educated and be a part of the intellectual life of the society. Another major contributory component was perhaps the French Revolution (1789), which stirred Europe to its depth, characterized as it was strong emotion. For now the more emotional sex marked its importance on the pages of literature.

It was during this time when literary criticism made its appearance on the journals such as Blackwoods Magazine, The Edinburgh etc. As if now the writers got the chance to show his ability to the world. In short the ‘Age of Romanticism’ left an unerasable notion on the creative sensibility of future generations.

Aparana Chauhan