When we think of romance or romantic we often associate the term People talk about how they want their significant others to be more romantic. But what does the term romantic really mean. Does it mean giving flowers, spending an evening alone by candlelight, bringing home extravagant gifts, or reciting beautiful poetry. Within todays society it can mean any one of those things and many more. But in the late eighteenth, early nineteenth century (1780-1830)Romance was considered something different altogether. To the Romantics of this era romance was a way of life. It was their whole life. Romance was their way of expressing themselves to the fullest as they rejected the old ways and ideas. This is a far cry from our idea of romance today. The Romantic Era, otherwise known as the Age of Emotion, represented a radical reaction to the political, social, intellectual, and artistic climate of the 18th century, which saw itself as the Age of Reason. It was a reaction against a view of the physical world increasingly dominated by science, and a rebellion against the emphasis on the material and on common sense. Romantics believed that their real links were with Nature rather than with the urban social existence. This was one of the many qualities that set the Romantic poets apart from earlier poets. In Nature they saw beauty, and out of this came their inspiration. Each Romantic poet tended to have his own individual views on Nature. For some Natures inspiration was subject matter in and of itself. Others gave Nature moral qualities, while still others used Nature as a means of discussing their personal crisis. While Nature was often the topic of poetry for romantics it was Imagination that was the key to their poetry. The Imagination was no longer just a faculty for creating fictions. For the Romantics it was a means by which they could communicate truth, and as different as the poets of this era were they all shared t...
