Romantic Poetry

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Romantic poetry essay

Romantic poetry is all about the feelings that the poet is trying to provoke not the story that is being told. Most people would say that romantic poetry is supposed to be about romance and nature. Yet a writer could write a poem about a city or death and it could still fit into the romantic format. New age poets are all into the story that is being told and not into the feelings that the poet was trying to provoke. They also want it to fit the specific format of romantic poetry, which is romance and nature. But romantic poetry is also about feelings not talking about them but using them as reasons for writing the poem in the first place. A romantic poem can sometimes not fit the romance and nature specified structure but it will fit the feelings category, which is most often overlooked.

Robert graves a new age poet criticizes William Wordsworth’s “the solitary reaper.” He says that it is too wordy… but how can a romantic poem be too wordy? When the poem is trying to provoke and draw forward feelings from the reader. He says that the whole story that is being told in the poem could have been told in about ¼ the amount of words. But without using the words that he used it would have been just a boring short story not a romantic poem. Graves asks how can Wordsworth say such things as “behold her!” and “O listen!” when there is no one else there but him and his highland lass. As many new age poets and readers do people will go into the poem and read into the story too deep. When they read they concentrate too much they have to let the words flow through their mind and let them bring up feelings and thoughts.

William Wordsworth and William Blake were great romantic poets; they were able to create romantic poems even if they did not totally fit the romantic poetry form. Wordsworth’s poem “composed upon Westminster Bridge” and William Blake’s “London” though both abo...