What are some salient features of Romantic poetry and where do they appear in Wordsworth's The Prelude (Book I), Coleridge's "Kubla Khan," and...

The Romantic movement in English poetry is often
associated with a number of typical characteristics, and many of these characteristics
appear in William Wordsworth’s The Prelude and in Samuel Taylor
Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” and Dejection: An Ode.” Among the typical Romantic traits that
appear in all three poems are the following:

1. An
   emphasis on humanity’s relationship with nature.


2. A
   emphasis on the frequent beauty of nature.


3. An emphasis on
   nature’s beneficent influence on humanity.


4. An emphasis on
   strong personal emotion.

The opening lines of
Book I of Wordsworth’s The Prelude reveal a number of these common
features of English Romanticism:

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O there is a blessing in the gentle
breeze,

A visitant that, while he fans my
cheek,

Doth seem half-conscious of the joy he
brings

From the green fields, and from yon azure
sky.

In this passage, the
exclamation “O” implies strong personal emotions (emotions of joy and pleasure, to
mention just two). The words “blessing” and “gentle” imply that nature is beneficent, as
do the words “fans” and “joy.” Meanwhile, the fourth line stresses nature’s
beauty.

In Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan,” many of the same
traits are also visible.  Thus, an emphasis on natural beauty is implied when Coleridge
mentions

. . .
gardens bright with sinuous rills

Where blossomed many an
incense-bearing tree . . .
(8-9)

Strong emotion is
suggested by the exclamation “But oh!” (12), while nature’s beneficence is suggested by
the reference to “sunny spots of greenery” (11).

Finally,
in Coleridge’s “Dejection: An Ode,” the speaker almost looks forward to the coming of a
storm since the storm may help relieve his current depression. He refers to the sounds
of storms by saying,

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Those sounds which oft have raised me, whilst
they awed,

And sent my soul
abroad,

Might now perhaps their wonted [that is,
accustomed] impulse give

Might startle this dull pain, and
make it move and live!
(17-20)

Here, nature is shown
to have had a beneficent influence (it “sent my soul abroad”), and, even in its darker
aspects, is shown to have a kind of beauty that makes it preferable to the speaker’s
present mental “pain.” Finally, the exclamation mark at the end of the quoted passage
reveals the speaker’s strong emotion.

Thus, all three
quoted passages illustrate the strong and often positive relationship that the Romantics
stressed between humanity and nature.