The Amorous Dynamics of Romanticism

Abstract

If a poet writes a poem, it is because he/she loves poetry; and if he/she loves poetry, it is because he/she loves the elements that warrant poetic experience. These elements, including the poet himself and all that constitutes a poem (the subject matter, poetic diction and form), act intimately one upon the other to produce poetic experiences. The agent that activates the interaction of all of these elements is amour; it is a love liaison, which in Romanticism, is principally invigorated by spontaneous powerful feelings. In this work, 1 claim that in Romanticism an affaire d'amour takes place between the self and the other, the poet and the poem; this culminates with amorous moments (ecstatic poetic experiences), which Wordsworth would call "spots of time" and Shelley, "visitations of the divinity". The dynamics of amour are motor forces that seem to embrace, exalt, and serve the poet-lover..