A compelling analysis. Another important and implicit aspect of Romanticism is its quasi-Pelagian conception of human nature, from which flows its political commitments. As you said, whether its anarchy (cf. Godwin) or communism, the faith in the individual is both hilariously naïve and incredibly destructive. I will only reserve for myself some admiration for those aspects of particular poets/thinkers that justly respond to the changes of the Industrial Revolution, its transformation of both life and landscape. Some have even characterized Tolkien, esp. Lord of the Rings, as "romantic" in that regard. To his credit, Wordsworth, by the end of his life, abandoned a radical political philosophy, but I think his worries about what some now call the "disenchanted" world stand. No?
Fascinating analysis!
A compelling analysis. Another important and implicit aspect of Romanticism is its quasi-Pelagian conception of human nature, from which flows its political commitments. As you said, whether its anarchy (cf. Godwin) or communism, the faith in the individual is both hilariously naïve and incredibly destructive. I will only reserve for myself some admiration for those aspects of particular poets/thinkers that justly respond to the changes of the Industrial Revolution, its transformation of both life and landscape. Some have even characterized Tolkien, esp. Lord of the Rings, as "romantic" in that regard. To his credit, Wordsworth, by the end of his life, abandoned a radical political philosophy, but I think his worries about what some now call the "disenchanted" world stand. No?
I agree. I hardly consider Wordsworth a Romantic. I almost want to call him a Domestic. I also resist calling Coleridge a Romantic.