What are some great Romantic poems that would be good to use for pointing out elements of Romanticism?

Question

Ive chosen to write an essay for my British Lit class and the topic is to choose 3 romantic poems (by different writers) and aruge that while all of the poems/writers are Romantic, one of the poems/writers can lay claim to the title of "most Romantic". Any favorites?

Answer 1

The key to romanticism is the pointing out of the heroic in man. For instance, Victor Hugo wrote the Hunchback of Notre Dame and that was a Romantic work. So don't think of the term in cheesy love poem garble. Generally the Romantics were at their peak with the mid 1800s through the early 1900s...the age of Nietzsche.

As a philosopher, I would argue that Nietzsche is the best Romantic Poet. I would say Ayn Rand came in a close second. Check out Daybreak by Nietzsche and his final aphorism and you will understand why.

American Romantic poets? Hmmm...I guess "I sing the body electric"/Leaves of Grass - Walt Whitman... far and away the best/most romantic I can think of.

Irish Romantic = William Butler Yeats...Leda and the Swan - an early Romantic...his use of alliteration and assonance is stunning...his ability to wrap man and myth, god and animal in one poem - no less than striking.

Dark Gothic Romantic - Edgar Allen Poe...the middle ground...Raven - you can't go wrong with this guys magic.

There are many like Baudelaire and other Frenchies and Eurofakeries...but they are boring and wrapped in the class struggle and political gambits so much that they lose the hero in their message...

Heroism is the root of Romanticism...if you remember that, this will not have been a waste of your time.

Answer 2

She walks in Beauty....Lord Byron


-----Walk Slowly ....Adelaide Love -----

....If you should go before me,walk slowly Down the ways of death,well-worn and wide,For I would want to overtake you quickly and seek the journey's ending by your side.

I would be so forlorn not to descry you Down some shining highroad when I came; Walk slowly,dear,and often look behind you and pause to hear if someone calls your name.

Love's Philosophy....Percy Bysshe Shelley

The Fountains mingle with the river,
And the river with the ocean;
The winds of heaven mix forever,
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
all things by a law divine
In one another's being mingle:
Why not I with thine?

See! the mountains kiss high heaven,
and the waves clasp one another;
No sister flower would be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;
and the sunlight clasps the earth,
and the moonbeams kiss the sea:
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?

ok, strange taste I know ....but I liked them... ; )