Romanticism

Critical Response Assessment Task
Extension English

How successful are Keats' and Coleridge's set poems, and one other text of your own choosing as an example of Romantic texts?

Romantic poets enriched their poetry with reverence for the natural world, a strong sense of pantheism, imagination felt both physically and emotionally, and an interest in the supernatural world. Their poetry, arts, music, and literature set themselves as oppositions towards those of the order and rationality of classical and neoclassical conventions. The Romantics shared ideals and beliefs which are illustrated through both poet's John Keat's and Samuel Taylor Coleridge's use of literature, and John Cole's artistic practice. Both poets and the artist have created sets of work that not only follow Romantic conventions, but use literary and artistic techniques that link the texts to each other. John Keats and Samuel Taylor Coleridge propelled the English Romantic movement through their writing. Keats, with his odes and poems were tackling the Romantic conventions, escalating reader's interest and belief in Romantic concepts. Both Keat's poems, "Ode To A Nightingale", and "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" along with Coleridge's "This Lime Tree Bower My Prison" and "Rime Of The Ancient Mariner" share the same ideals as that of John Cole's "Il Penseroso". Although there are some minor differences, Romanticism is an era that contained such a broad set of ideologies that it is easy to find the similarities the texts shared when looking at conventions.

In essence, Romanticism came to life through literature and the arts. Both Coleridge and Keats successfully used literature to exemplify their beliefs and reveal the Romanticism conventions encapsulated in their poetry. These conventions are introduced through techniques and parallel connections of symbolism within their poetry. Thomas Cole exemplified his Romanticism beliefs through subject matter and artistic techniques. Romanticism was a...