Romantic Key Ideas & Lyrical Ballads PDF

THE ROMANTIC SPIRIT  THE ROMANTICS’ KEY IDEAS SUBJECTIVISM: interest in the inner world of the self. The view of NATURE: source of inspiration; an interest in humble and rustic life / distrust in progress IMAGINATION a new ideal of BEAUTY: not balance and h...

THE ROMANTIC SPIRIT  THE ROMANTICS’ KEY IDEAS SUBJECTIVISM: interest in the inner world of the self. The view of NATURE: source of inspiration; an interest in humble and rustic life / distrust in progress IMAGINATION a new ideal of BEAUTY: not balance and harmony The cult of the EXOTIC irrational, wild, supernatural. Interest in history (Middle Ages) The task of the POET The figure of the CHILD Poetic technique: rejections of the conventions of Neoclassical poetry / more spontaneous form of poetry  PREFACE TO LYRICAL BALLADS OBJECT OF POETRY «The principal object then which I proposed to myself in these Poems was to choose incidents and situations from common life. […] Low and rustic life was generally chosen, because in this condition, the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity, are less under restraint, and speak a plainer and more emphatic language» LANGUAGE «… in a selection of language really used by men; and, at the same time, to throw over them a certain colouring of imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual way»  PREFACE TO LYRICAL BALLADS THE POET «What is a Poet? […] He is a man speaking to men: a man, it is true, endowed with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common among mankind; […] a man who rejoices more than other men in the spirit of life that is in him.» POETRY «Poetry is a spontaneous overflowing of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity.»