Romantic poetry

Romantic poetry is the poetry of Romanticism, a philosophical, literary, artistic and cultural era reacting against prevailing Enlightenment ideals of the nineteenth century providing natural, emotional, personal and artistic themes. Inevitably, the characterization of a broad range of contemporaneous poets and poetry under the single unifying name can be viewed more as an exercise in historical compartmentalization than an attempt to capture the essence of the actual movement.

Poets such as William Wordsworth were actively engaged in trying to create a new kind of poetry that emphasized intuition over reason and the pastoral over the urban, often eschewing consciously poetic language in an effort to use more colloquial language. Wordsworth himself in the Preface to his and Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads defined good poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings,” though in the same sentence he goes on to clarify this statement by asserting that nonetheless any poem of value must still be composed by a man “possessed of more than usual organic sensibility [who has] also thought long and deeply;” he also emphasizes the importance of the use of meter in poetry (which he views as one of the key features that differentiates poetry from prose). Although many people stress the notion of spontaneity in Romantic poetry, the movement was still greatly concerned with the pain of composition, of translating these emotive responses into poetic form. Indeed, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, another prominent Romantic poet and critic in his On Poesy or Art sees art as “the mediatress between, and reconciler of nature and man”. Such an attitude reflects what might be called the dominant theme of Romantic poetry: the filtering of natural emotion through the human mind in order to create art, coupled with an awareness of the duality created by such a process.

The Romantics

The Romantics are rock and roll band often put under the banner of power pop and new wave from Detroit, Michigan, United States, formed in 1976. The band's first show was on Valentine's Day at My Fair Lady Club, in Detroit, opening for the New MC5 in 1977. For three years the band was on the road, playing Boston's Rathskeller, CBGB in NYC's Bowery, Philadelphia, Pa., Hot Club, Cleveland's Agora... signed to Nat Weiss' Nemperor independent Epic/ Portrait record label. The Romantics achieved popularity in the United States, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, parts of Asia, Australia, Europe, and Hispanic America on the strength of the band's well-crafted pop songs and high energy shows as well as noted for their look; black vinyl to red leather suits in their music videos. They were influenced by 1950s American rock and roll, Detroit's MC5, Stooges, early Bob Seger, Motown R&B, 1960s North American garage rock as well as the British Invasion rockers. music.

Career

The Romantics' original lineup consisted of lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and harmonicist Wally Palmar, lead guitarist and vocalist Mike Skill, bassist and backing vocalist Rich Cole, and drummer and lead vocalist Jimmy Marinos. All four band members made songwriting contributions to the group, but Palmar and Skill were considered the band's primary tunesmiths. After a few years of playing local and regional gigs in Detroit and the Midwest, this lineup of the Romantics recorded the band's self-titled debut album for Nemperor Records in September 1979 with British producer Pete Solley. The group's true record debut was the 1978 single on Spider Records, "Little White Lies" / "I Can't Tell You Anything", followed that year by the Bomp single "Tell It to Carrie" / "First in Line" (on the Bomp! Records label). All of these were re-recorded later for the first LP.