Source: HOLT Elements of Literature: Essential of American Literature, Fifth Course (2009)
The Five Key Characteristics of Romanticism:
1. A conviction that intuition, imagination, and
emotion are superior to reason;
2. A conviction that poetry (or creative works/art
forms) is/are superior to science;
3. A belief that contemplation of the natural world is a
means of discovering the truth that lies behind mere
reality;
4. A distrust of industry and city life and an
idealization of rural life and of the wilderness;
5. An interest in the more “natural” past and in the
supernatural.