Romantic Movement in Poetry Michael Molenaar

The Romantic Movement of poetry focused on the return to the individual as much as the political revolutions of the time. In doing so, there is also a return to the natural world in poetry that had been superseded by a more predominant abstract setting. In general, the natural world plays a more pertinent role in poetry than in prose writing. It acts not only as a setting but also interacts with the individual poet or audience. Certain natural elements can determine how the narrator feels or even can reflect their emotions. As in the pastoral, setting the natural world contains certain strong themes that can take focus in a poem. It creates a world of potential metaphors and motifs that come naturally to the reader and the poet, as they are founded in emotion before intellect. The potentiality of the natural world is reflected in the work of two of the most renowned poets of the Romantic Movement. William Wordsworth in his poem Tintern Abbey as well as John Keats with his poem La Belle Dame Sans Merci displays how the natural world can be more than just a setting. Both works contain a strong integration of natural themes, and in many circumstances the natural setting of the poem plays an active role in the poem.

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