Romantic literature is typically thought to contain
thoughts of grandeur regarding love. In fact, love has little to do with the Romantic
period at all. While love may erupt in Romantic texts as a secondary theme, it is not
one of the characteristics which define Romantic
literature.
The characteristics typical of Romantic
literature came about as a rebuttal to the preceding period (Realism or The Age of
Reason). Therefore, the Romantic period explored emotion and intuition over reason.
Romantics also explored the importance of nature and
imagination.
As for Wordsworth's poem "She dwelt among the
untrodden ways", this text exemplifies the Romantic genre by highlighting nature:
"springs of Dove" and "a violet by a mossy stone". Not only does Wordsworth use nature
to exemplify the Romantic qualities of the poem, he also focuses on the
feeling of the poem. (Here is where many believe that the theme of
love is necessary to make a text Romantic- simplistically it is emotion which signifies
Romanticism not only love). While Wordsworth's poem is not about love, one could
interpret that he is feeling the loss of one who could have been
loved.
Wordsworth is using his imagination to understand
why the woman in the poem has lived a life alone, "among the untrodden path". The
description of her life is one of solitude and beauty. Wordsworth seems to simply be
focusing on those ideals and the fact that she should have been known by
others.
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